Cashews are a favorite tree nut eaten around the world.
They’re estimated to be nutritious and may contribute various health advantages, such as increasing blood sugar control between people with type 2 diabetes and diminishing total and LDL cholesterol. Any people appreciate eating cashews on their own, mixed into cashew nut butter, or poured into a dairy-free cream for soups, sauces, and ice cream.
Still, numerous people are uninformed that eating cashews in several forms can be bad, as they receive a serious toxin called urushiol.
Cashew harvesting and processing
Cashews grow on cashew trees. As such, they’re listed as a type of tree nut. Ripe cashew trees grow red or yellow pear-shaped drupes called cashew apples. The cashews themselves become inside of gray shells on the ends of those fruits.
The cashews are ready for gathering when the cashew apples begin to fall from the tree. The cashew apples, which are good but extremely perishable, are collected.
The cashew nuts, yet in their shell, are eliminated from the ends of the fruits and may be dried in the sun, depending on the manufacturer’s method. These cashews are raw and not sold due to a risk of urushiol appearance.
The raw cashews are then baked at great heat, each by steaming them in a general rotating drum or vat of boiling oil to eliminate urushiol remnants before they can be shelled, thoroughly dried, and peeled.
In this case, certain cashews are however often labeled as raw, since they’re free of added flavorings. Cashews may be roasted a second time for flavoring purposes if they’re being sold as baked cashews. Extra round of roasting may also help ensure any unused urushiol residue is eliminated before the sale.