Remember folks daffodils aren't for eating

[Jared]

Supermarkets being told to keep daffodils away from food...

http://news.sky.com/story/1423059/keep-daffodils-away-from-food-stores-told

 

[cranmere]

I actually checked that it wasn't April 1st when I heard that on the radio news.

 

[Harvestman]

Another example of the disconnect between people and their food (or in some cases people and the real world). Sad really.

 

[cranmere]

Having recovered from fits of laughter I had to admit that I've actually met people in the supermarket who had no idea what some vegetables looked like. It's usually students at the beginning of the new university year who stand there with their lists debating with each other whether they are looking at a cucumber or a courgette, and was that red thing a pepper or an aubergine.

 

[bambodoggy]

It is a daft and silly sorry...not to mention a sad reflection on food disconnect, however, there are plenty of silly people out there (think Darwin awards, cd trays in pc's used as coffee cup holders, do not use on fire notes on plastic canteens etc etc etc) so people do need protecting from themselves sometimes.....and to be fair, a bundle of daff stems could be mistaken for a bundle of spring onions and a bag of bulbs for a bag of charlottes.

Sad......but not so stupid in this day and age me things

 

[Kerne]

It is a daft and silly sorry...not to mention a sad reflection on food disconnect, however, there are plenty of silly people out there (think Darwin awards, cd trays in pc's used as coffee cup holders, do not use on fire notes on plastic canteens etc etc etc) so people do need protecting from themselves sometimes.....and to be fair, a bundle of daff stems could be mistaken for a bundle of spring onions and a bag of bulbs for a bag of charlottes.

Sad......but not so stupid in this day and age me things

Natural Selection?

 

[swotty]

Yep, Darwin awards!!

 

[Robson Valley]

Even in the city, where I would hope that they would know better, the younger cashiers
have no idea what a radiccio is, or a chayote or a jicima, let alone know how to spell
it to look it up.

 

[xylaria]

I suppose if you just jumped from under a cross channel truck and dont speak or read english you could mix them up with onions. They dont taste like smell or taste like onions. I presume they taste pretty rank. Supermarkets should cater for the hard of thinking, illiterate and foreign.

 

[Yorkshirewanderer]

 

[Ed the Ted]

Are daffys coming out now? I spent the majority of my day smashing ice/frozen compressed snow with a mattock on the drive and shovelling it out, as it's effectively an ice rink! Spring feels a long way off.

 

[JAG009]

Daffys for dafties

 

[Bishop]

Was intrigued by this news story so did a little digging, apparently the last reported incident was in 2012...

Gastro-intestinal poisoning due to consumption of daffodils mistaken for vegetables at commercial markets, Bristol, United Kingdom
In February 2012, we investigated a cluster of people who presented at a local emergency department with sudden onset of vomiting after mistaken consumption of daffodils. Methods. We interviewed patients to collect information on daffodil purchase and consumption. With Local Authority we investigated points of sale to understand the source of confusion. Results. We identified 11 patients (median age: 23 years, range 5–60 years, eight females) among Bristol (UK) residents of Chinese origin. The most commonly reported symptoms were vomiting (n = 11) and nausea (n = 9) that developed within 12 h of daffodil consumption. There were no hospitalisations or deaths. Patients were clustered in two family dinners and one party. Bunches of pre-bloom daffodil stalks were purchased in two stores of one supermarket chain, which displayed daffodils next to vegetables, not marked as non-edible. Patients cooked and consumed daffodils mistaking them for Chinese chives/onions. Discussion. Gastro-intestinal poisoning should be considered in differential diagnoses of gastroenteritis. Multi-cultural societies are at risk of confusion between non-edible and edible plants. Supermarket presentation of daffodils may have contributed to mistaken consumption. We recommended explicit labelling and positioning of daffodils, away from produce. The supermarket chain introduced graphic ‘non-edible’ labels. No further patients were reported following action.

Source : informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/15563650.2012.718350

 

[Coldfeet]

Interesting and thought provoking. It's easy for us to distinguish these types of things, as we are so familiar with them.
i would like to think I wouldn't make the same mistake if I were shopping in a country where I wasn't familiar with the food or language, but I cannot guarantee it. Not that I'm stupid mind, just because of the assumptions we all make in every day life.

 

[Lister]

To be fair, most people don't see daffodils without the yellow flower on them so they *can* look like spring onions etc, I know when i was on a fundraising bag-pack and saw tons of them and my first thought was "why are they eating daffodil stems?"

 

[Trencakey]

I think it's the bulbs that are being mistaken for onions ?