Spinach

Since a dozen people were hospitalized this week with symptoms of food poisoning after consuming spinach, questions arose as to whether the vegetable was safe to consume for Turkish people, especially after a similar incident two years ago during the same season. 

The importance of training for farmers has come to the fore after several people were recently hospitalized in Turkey due to food poisoning suspected to have originated from spinach mixed with toxic weed.

More than 60 people were hospitalized in Istanbul and the neighboring Tekirdağ province between Nov. 1 and 4 with symptoms of food poisoning after consuming spinach mixed with a wild plant, according to officials.

The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) has issued a recall for a spinach product on suspicion that it might be mixed with jimsonweed leaves, BFSA press office said, quoted by Focus News Agency. 

Torbalı, one of Turkey’s spinach capitals, produces spinach that even ‘Popeye the Sailorman’ would approve, especially the spinach produced in the aptly named town Sağlık, Turkish for ‘health’ I think everybody has watched the stories of “Popeye the Sailorman” at least once in their life. I always loved this character that, after eating spinach, changed into a superman.