Australians reassured that spinach in supermarkets is safe as sales drop 30% following poisonings

Australians are reassured that spinach is safe to eat, after sales fell 30% this week amid fears the weed mixed with some of the leafy greens have poisoned around 200 people.

Shoppers leave bags of spinach on supermarket shelves during the busiest time of year after the recall of Riviera Farms products this week amid contamination alert.

On Wednesday, Riviera Farms and Victorian Health said they found spruce - a type nightshade - in some of the farm's spinach products, which can cause hallucinations, delusions, vomiting and respiratory problems.

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Bags of spinach have been recalled after the alarm was first raised on Saturday.

Agriculture Victoria has been contacted for comment.

Michael Coote, chief executive of vegetable industry body Ausveg, said many growers had seen a 30% drop in sales %.

“It varies depending on the company, who their main customers are, but there is a noticeable drop in orders,” Coote said.

< p class="dcr-h26idz">"This is worrying given that the lead up to Christmas time is the busiest week of the year, even a 10% or 20% drop in sales can be significant.

While the drop in sales would hit hard some growers were "cautiously optimistic" it wouldn't last long.

"Given the speed with which this incident was handled, with food safety authorities and retailers handling the recall and removing it from shelves, and confirmation that it was from a single source, and not of a significant issue with spinach production nationwide, we [hopefully] won't see the prolonged decline, but it's still early days,” Coote said.

He said Riviera Farms, which temporarily lost its certification to grow spinach, would have to go through a process with the health department to ensure the food it produced was safe.

"There will be rectifications that they will have to undertake to prove that they are above this problem, to ensure that any product that comes off the farm is safe and meets required food safety processes,” Coote said.

He said spinach the product on supermarket shelves was now safe to eat.

< p class="dcr-h26idz">On Wednesday, Riviera Farms said it was conducting its own independent audit of the farm, which it hoped would lead to "the resumption of production".

"By the time Riviera Farms baby spinach is re-introduced to the market, it will be Australia's safest and most audited spinach supply," a spokesperson for the company said. closed. .

"As a company that has been providing quality products without incident since the 1880s, we are confident that we can quickly restore supply and thank our customers for their strong support.

"Riviera Farms also thanks NSW Health, Victorian Health and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand for their expert advice at a difficult time for our business and staff ."

Food Standards Australia New Zealand, which is responsible for developing the food safety code but does not maintain it pointed out this type of contamination was "infrequent" .

"FSANZ is working with state and territory food, health and agricultural authorities to develop guidance documents to help industry prevent future incidents", a spokesperson says.