Edible Papaya Seeds
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: Cora Lee Arndt
Posted on: January 16, 1999

I’m interested in eating papaya seeds as a replacement for black pepper. I’ve been soaking and then drying the seeds and then grinding them up. My question is, are your papaya seeds edible, or are they sprayed with a fungicide or some other substance that would make them bad to eat? If so, do you know of another source of edible papaya seeds?

Our current papaya seeds are untreated. Papaya seeds are often sold treated with a fungicide such as Captan which improves the germination rate. Generally, we do not sell treated seeds. In the very, very rare instance when we cannot find untreated seeds, and we must turn to an alternate supplier, we have sold treated seeds. In those rare cases (perhaps 2-3 seed lots in the last decade), we clearly mark the seed packages "Treated". In the case of papaya, we have not had to turn to treated seeds for at least five years.

We are not heard of the usage of the seeds you describe. It sounds like it would be of interest to others. If you have additional information on using papaya seeds as a substitute for black pepper, we would be happy to publish it on our website.

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