# Cyanide in Peach Pits a Danger?



## willowgal (Mar 3, 2016)

Was surprised to see my canned peaches were disqualified from the county fair this week, because I'd (purposefully) put a peach pit in with the fruit. A practice the "Old Timers" say improves flavor, and I wanted to test it out (and IMO, it does!)

The judge cited that since peach pits contain "cyanide" they were in violation of current FDA standards.

Of course my own research found rules from 2015 from the FDA clearly allowing one pit per 8 oz. of canned peaches (commercially canned I assume). And these were quarts, so it would fall below the FDA guidelines.

Anybody else ever tried this, and died of cyanide? All I found online were a lot of great-sounding recipes using peach pits, lol!


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## arrocks (Oct 26, 2011)

Died from 1 peach pit? No. Gotten sick, yes, a child. Cyanide isn't something most people would want to expose themselves to anyway but such a small dose exposure isn't going to kill an adult unless perhaps they have a damaged immune system. Small children and the elderly would be much less tolerant. And if you include multiple pits in something for some reason you be increasing the dosage substantially.

I'm going to guess the judge meant the USDA guidelines rather than the FDA guidelines since it is the USDA guidelines that fair judges are required to follow. FDA's are quite different since they only apply to commercially sold foods.



> All I found online were a lot of great-sounding recipes using peach pits, lol!


Yeah and there are also lots of recipes out there for adding even more hazardous ingredients to recipes.


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## Echoesechos (Jan 22, 2010)

Apple's do to. I won't feed my chickens Apple cores because of it so I don't think I would can using a pit.. Truthfully never heard of that before. I bet your peaches were nice and pretty to.. Next year maybe.


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## Ellendra (Jul 31, 2013)

Cyanide breaks down quickly when exposed to high heat. You can actually roast peach pits and then eat the kernels like almonds. If your pit was canned, it was fine.

If it was a raw pit, I wouldn't suggest trying it.


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## willowgal (Mar 3, 2016)

Thanks all! Canned more peaches today, and put together a few "special jars" for the fair next year...no pits in other words. The rest do have pits. My research did say that cooking negates the cyanide, and since I did a hot pack, plus time in a pressure canner, I'm not worried.

Was also intrigued by using the pits, so have a cookie sheet of them in the oven. 1 hour at 200 degrees, and we shall see.


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