40 Fascinating Food Facts That I Honestly Think About Way Too Often

They’re almost genetically identical except for one thing: a gene that’s either dominant (peaches) or recessive (nectarines). That’s what makes the skin either smooth or fuzzy.

It’s derived from the French word roquette.

An episode of Inside Trader Joe’s revealed that TJ’s used to sell bananas by the pound back in the day. They were packaged in bags of four or five, so if you wanted less than that, you were out of luck.

But 13 years ago, company CEO Dan Bane was visiting a TJ’s — and he saw a much older woman buying fruit. “I asked her, ‘Ma’am, if you don’t mind me asking, I saw you looking at the bananas but you didn’t put anything in your cart,’” Bane said. “And she says to me, ‘Sonny, I may not live to that fourth banana.’”

Bane said they decided the very next day that Trader Joe’s would sell individual bananas. They priced them at 19 cents each, and they’ve been that way ever since.

The part of the quinoa plant that we eat is the seed. But to get the seed, the plant first needs to flower.

The brand reworked the chocolate mixture, among other things. (But worth noting: some people *really* hated the new version.)

Just like regular garlic, the large mature bulb is broken up into cloves. You buy seeds online here, or a watch a video of elephant garlic being harvested here.

Although it smells like nutmeg and cinnamon, Allspice is actually a fruit that’s picked, dried, and sold either as whole “berries” or ground up into its own spice.

Jam is made with fruit, sugar, and often pectin (a thickener). Jelly is made with fruit juice, sugar, and pectin. Another way to remember the difference? Jam is chunky (it’ll have mashed fruit); jelly is smooth.

They’re so big that I think at first I assumed they… grew underground?? IDK IDK.

All varieties: green, white, purple.

That’s because the grease from the chocolate and oil in real cookies could damage the puppets.

The raw leaves contain oxalic acid, among other things. And if you eat a ton of them, it can be lethal.

They contain urushiol, which is toxic. To remove it, cashews go through an extensive roasting or steaming process before they’re packaged and sold.

Sour Patch Kids are just pumped into a different mold and finished with a sour coating.

Dating back to the 1800s, it’s America’s first chocolate cake on record. Early versions used ermine frosting, a whipped buttercream that was the icing of choice in the US before cream cheese frosting came along.

It contains myristicin, a compound that has hallucinatory qualities — and bad side effects — if ingested in very large doses. (Don’t try it, obvs.)

To make paprika, they’re chopped, dried, and ground. And while they’re typically red bell peppers, paprika can be made from other types of peppers too — depending on the variety. (Smoked, sweet, etc.) Watch a video of how to make homemade paprika here.

The new design uncages the animals and puts them in the wild.

It’s a looong process. The next time you grab one at the grocery store, think about how far the thing has come!

Real vanilla is incredibly labor-intensive to produce. When the flowers finally do bloom, they stay open for only one day and have to be pollinated within 12 hours.

And last year, Ritter won a German lawsuit allowing it to be the only major chocolate brand to sell a square bar rather than a rectangular one.

Brassica oleracea was selectively bred over hundreds of years to create dozens of very different veggies.

That’s according to a study by British Medical Journal, which surveyed 29,000 people about how they felt (energized, relaxed, sexy, confident, tired, aggressive, etc) after drinking various types of alcohol.