In the original statement of claim lodged in the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2018 by Riviera Farms, the company alleged that two herbicides manufactured by Accensi and marketed and sold by Syngenta had been “contaminated with chemical impurities”.

The farm alleged that after applying the herbicides, its carrot and corn crops had been slow to mature and stunted in size, while the carrots also “experienced bleaching or burning”. The allegations were strongly denied by Accensi and Syngenta.

The case proceeded to mediation in June 2019, and was settled. A Syngenta spokeswoman said it could not comment for confidentiality reasons, except to say the case was “concluded to the satisfaction of everyone involved”.

Accensi was contacted for comment but did not respond. A Lander and Rogers spokesman said the law firm was unable to discuss or comment on the 2018 legal dispute.

A spokesman for Riviera Farms denied the allegations in the 2018 court case and said “no determination of either Accensi/Syngenta and Riviera’s liability to each other were made”.

“The suggestion of some misconduct on the part of Riviera (or its management) in relation to the Supreme Court proceeding you have referred to [is] unwarranted and is of course denied in the strongest possible terms,” the farm said on Wednesday.

Riviera Farms is directed by Nelson Cox, a respected local elder of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, the director of the Bairnsdale campus of the Brethren school and a trustee of the church hall trust.

The farm’s statement said its investigations into the weed contamination “have not identified any other potential chemical, herbicide or other type of contaminant”, and added that no other produce from the farm had been contaminated.

The spokesman said as a precautionary measure, neighbouring crops of spinach are in the process of being destroyed.

“As a company that has been supplying quality produce without incident since the 1880s, we are confident we can quickly restore supply and thank our clients for their strong support.”

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At least 20 Victorians have gone to hospital emergency departments and more than 160 people in NSW alone have reported being unwell after consuming the lettuce leaf, which has been removed from supermarket shelves across the country.

Dr Darren Roberts, clinical toxicologist and the director of NSW Poisons Information Centre, said early laboratory tests had been reassuring, suggesting that persisting effects of eating the contaminated spinach will not occur for people beyond 24 hours.

He said while it was not entirely unheard of for some people to have blurred vision for a few days, he did not anticipate any persistent abnormalities or long-term health implications for those who had consumed the spinach.

“Some of the chemicals we are seeing are medicines used in therapy, so they are used for treatment of some medical conditions in hospitals, or to treat diarrhoea and motion sickness,” he said. “These are chemicals that are medicines, which we are quite familiar with.”

Anyone concerned about exposure to a baby spinach product should contact Victorian Poisons Information Centre on 13 11 26 and those with severe symptoms should call triple zero.

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