Veteran star Rippon tests positive for drugs after eating poppy seed bread
Consumers who eat bread containing poppy seeds could leave themselves vulnerable to failing workplace drug tests, after a BBC experiment found some batches of loaves contained banned substances.
Veteran presenter Angela Rippon tested positive for opiates after eating baked goods containing the seeds as part of an investigation.
A test result found that Rippon, one of the co-presenters of the Rip Off Britain: Food series, had morphine – a substance derived from opium – in her urine after she ate a loaf and a poppy seed bagel over the course of three days.
It has prompted toxicology experts to warn some products containing the popular ingredient could have higher amounts of morphine in them, depending on where and when the oilseed was harvested.
Rippon and producers of the BBC One series decided to hold the experiment after a contributor to the programme explained he had been dismissed from his job at a power station after a routine drug test showed opiates in his system.
Dumbfounded at first, he realised that the answer must be the toast he ate as part of his breakfast. The bread contained poppy seeds, widely used in salads and pasta dishes as well as baked goods. Rippon, 72, had a go at a urine screening test herself as the show explained how drugs tests are becoming more common in work environments where employees drive, operate heavy machinery or where the job is a matter of public safety.
The episode of the programme features Atholl Johnston, a professor of clinical pharmacology at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, part of Queen Mary University.
In the programme, which aired yesterday, Rippon asked him: “Does that mean that if I was taking a test as an employee, that my employers could say there’s a possibility, Rippon, that you’re a drug taker?”
Prof Johnston replied: “The amount of morphine in a poppy seed will vary quite considerably depending on when and where it was harvested.”