Belgium warns citizens not to eat Christmas trees after

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It’s the new year — time to start anew, set goals, and apparently, in Belgium, avoid eating your Christmas tree.

Yes, Belgium’s food agency just issued a seasonal health warning telling citizens not to eat their Christmas trees.

In Ghent, which is apparently Belgium’s answer to Portland, their city website started giving out tips on how to recycle your Christmas tree … by consuming it. They said you could strip the needles, blanch them, and dry them, for stuff like flavored butter.

Not joking. They actually recommended this (though they did leave a warning):

To this, Belgium’s food safety agency, AFSCA, said,

Here’s what they had to say:

“Christmas trees are not destined to enter the food chain,” it said in a statement. “There is no way to ensure that eating Christmas trees is safe – either for people or animals,” it said, citing the likely presence of pesticides on most trees cultivated for the season.

“What’s more, there is no easy way for consumers to tell if Christmas trees have been treated with flame retardant – and not knowing that could have serious, even fatal consequences,” the AFSCA added. “In short, there are many reasons not to promote nor encourage the reuse of Christmas trees in the food chain.”