Wild garlic: here’s what you need to check before consuming it to avoid poisoning

For several years, an aromatic plant has been on everyone’s lips in spring. Its name: wild garlic. While everyone swears by thyme, parsley and even chives, wild garlic is making its way into the kitchen. Quiche, soup, pesto, it’s very simple, you find it everywhere. How can you be sure not to risk food poisoning? We answer you!

When we walk in nature, the temptation to gather and consume what is around us is great. However, many dangers, sometimes well hidden, surround us. You must therefore be very careful and if in doubt, do not tempt the devil. Last March, two Austrians had this tragic experience. After having collected, in the wild, and ingested colchicum, a plant that they confused with the famous wild garlic, they became seriously poisoned and died.

Following this tragedy, the Grand Est Regional Health Agency recalled that “wild garlic and wild leek grow in the same undergrowth as colchicum”. For its part, the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety provided some details in an article dated April 2023. “The flowers of colchicum, very different from those of wild garlic or wild leek, only appear in the fall, after the other two, which can make it easier to confuse the leaves of these three plants picked up in spring. before they flower”, she explained.

To avoid any health risks, note that several differences exist between colchicum and wild garlic. The latter reaches, for example, 15 to 40 cm when mature and gives off an odor resembling that of garlic, especially when you crush its leaves. Its bulb is also white and elongated, as for its leaves, they are oval, pointed and carried by stems. The colchicum has round, dark bulbs, as well as rigid, stemless leaves.

Be careful not to confuse wild garlic with other plants such as lily of the valley, whose leaves may appear similar.