Belgium's food safety agency issued a warning to residents to not turn their Christmas trees into food after a city's recycling recommendations included using the needles in recipes.

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.

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

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

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.

Some things may go without saying, but just in case... Belgium's food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up Tuesday: don't eat your Christmas tree.

A day after Belgium warned against eating Christmas trees, Swedish officials said that the needles can be safely used to make butter and other products -- as long as the trees are young and wild.

The Belgium food agency issues a warning against consuming Christmas trees after Ghent's council suggested reusing pine needles in recipes. Read more about the safety concerns around this eco-friendly initiative.

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.