Last week, Belgium’s food safety agency issued a warning to residents urging them not to eat Christmas trees. This came after the city of Ghent included a recommendation to cook Christmas tree needles on a list of recycling suggestions.

"In Scandinavia, they have been doing it for a long time: picking the needles from the branches, briefly immersing them in boiling water, pouring them through a sieve and drying them on a clean cloth," the suggestion said. "Once the needles are dry, you can make delicious spruce needle butter with them for bread or toast."

The Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain responded with a warning to residents that Christmas trees "are not meant to end up in the food chain." That's because Christmas trees are often treated with pesticides and other chemicals. "What's more, there is no easy way for consumers to tell if Christmas trees have been treated with flame retardant -- and not knowing that could have serious, even fatal consequences," the agency continued, concluding that, "There is no way to ensure that eating Christmas trees is safe -- either for people or animals."

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This segment originally appeared in today's edition of the Morning Brief newsletter. Sign up here to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.

Senior writer Chris DeWeese edits Morning Brief, The Weather Channel’s weekday newsletter.