The country’s food agency warned against using evergreens in food after the city of Ghent suggested an unusual form of recycling: spruce needle butter.

A city in Belgium suggested its residents eat their Christmas tree, but health officials warned it could be dangerous.

The Belgian Federal Food Agency issued the odd warning after Ghent's local authorities suggested people could reuse pine needles in recipes to avoid waste. View on euronews

Yes, the Belgian government was recently forced to issue an odd PSA warning its citizens not to eat their old Christmas trees.

Christmas trees are not supposed to end up on your dinner table. Well, if you were thinking otherwise, Belgium’s food agency has issued a warning asking people not to eat conifers

Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region,

Belgium ’s Federal Food Agency on Tuesday warned people to not eat their Christmas trees after a city council suggested recipes to reuse conifers following the holiday season.

Belgium's food agency has had to issue a health warning after a local council encouraged people to reduce waste by cooking with their Christmas trees.

Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply from Belgium's federal agency for food chain security, AFSCA, was a resounding "No". "Christmas trees are not destined to enter the food chain," it said in a statement.

Now that the festive season and Epiphany has ended, it's time to put the tree away. And when it's not artificial, you don't want to throw it away anywhere. Pick-ups are planned, but Ghent has come up with another idea: to eat it.