Toxins reason for spinach poisoning cases in Istanbul

Duvar English

66 people from Istanbul and the neighboring province of Istanbul were poisoned after eating spinach this week, in what Istanbul health authorities consider to be a case of the vegetable being mixed with wild plants. 

According to the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Health, their research determined that the spinach in question had been mixed with wild plants from the Solanaceae family containing atropine and scopalamine. 

The 66 people who experienced food poisoning from consuming the spinach were hospitalized, though no one was reported to be in critical condition. 

“Spinach is not a food that does not naturally pave the way for poisoning. When I say naturally I mean that spinach does not contain traces of poisonous chemical materials or bacteria that could result in poisoning,” wrote food engineer Bülent Şık in an article on the Bianet news portal on Monday. 

“Plants create a number of chemical materials to protect themselves from insects and other creatures that eat them. A segment of these chemical materials that are produced are beneficial to humans and a large number of animals, and can be seen as a nutritional element. However a large segment are toxins. When plants containing these toxins are consumed, they can produce poisonous effects,” Şık wrote. 

Şık, a prominent academic, was sentenced in September to over a year in prison on charges of  'disclosing official secrets', following the release of the results of a study he took part in conducting  concerning water and soil contamination in northwestern Turkey and its correlation with above average cancer rates in the area.