Breakfast fail: Bagel to blame for positive opioid test

Anyone who works with heavy machinery or is drug-tested at work may want to forgo their morning poppy-seed bagel.

This after a pregnant woman in labor in a Towson, Maryland, hospital reportedly tested positive for opioids after consuming one.

“I was in labor … I was having contractions … and the doctor came in and said, ‘You’ve tested positive for opiates,’” Elizabeth Eden told WBAL-TV news in Baltimore in a report that aired Tuesday.

“I said, ‘Well, can you test me again? And I ate a poppy seed bagel this morning for breakfast.’” The doctor reported said, “No, you've been reported to the state,” Ms. Eden told a reporter of the ordeal that happened on her daughter’s birthday on April 4.

Both poppy seeds and the drug come from the opium poppy plant. The seeds contain trace amounts of opiates — and it doesn't take much to test positive for drugs after eating a poppy-seed bagel, the station reported.

As a result of this connection and the “poppy-seed defense,” Ms. Eden’s case was recently dismissed, the station reported.