SPACE WIRE
Killer zucchini scandal grips New Zealand
AUCKLAND (AFP) Mar 01, 2002
Forget the little things like global warming and political corruption, New Zealand has a real scandal on its hands -- toxic zucchini and its great cover-up.

They havent quite killed anybody just yet, but there was a lot stomach cramps, diarrhoea and vomiting for 14 unfortunate souls.

In its front page lead Friday, the Dominion newspaper revealed that back at the height of summer in early January zucchinis were not good for you and the growers, who knew it, were not telling.

It was fairly wet then -- despite summer -- and zucchini has a natural toxin called cucurbitacin which it gives up to deter insects.

It is described as having the same charms as cat urine, and does not taste any better.

But by the time the growers had noticed, most of the zucchini was in the shops.

Growers were advised by Vegfed, the Vegetable and Potato Growers Federation, of the problem in a letter which said the toxin could cause "long lasting harm".

Vegfed boss Ron Gall also sent out a letter, reproduced by the Dominion.

"This issue," he said of the cat urine toxin, "has not reached the media and we want to keep it that way."

Now that it is across the nations front-pages another Vegfed official, Peter Silcock, is fronting up to say they were not keeping the information secret.

"As soon as we became (aware) of the problem we immediately began working with the Ministry of Health and Crown Public Health, Christchurch.

"We all agreed that issuing the information to the public would be alarmist and like warning people about a storm a week after it had passed," he said in a statement.

What was puzzling, though, was that everybody involved reckoned zucchini with the toxin was pretty foul tasting -- yet people ate them.

Anything goes, it seems, in a salad or stir fry.

SPACE.WIRE