In article >, "White Monkey" > wrote:
>"Everybody knows" that sprouting potatoes are poisonous. But what degree is
>"sprouting"? I have one here, a large blue truffle potato, from each eye of
>which was growing a 1/2 cm long cluster of sprouts. I scraped them off and
>dug out the first few mm of flesh under them, and the potato under there
>looks fine. Is this safe to cook with, specifically boiling and cubing it
>for use in a leftover-lamb-roast pie? Is it only safe for adult-type humans?
>I'm breastfeeding a six-month-old; does that make any difference, or are we
>talking a strictly safe potato here?

G'day Katrina,

Sprouting spuds typically contain as much, and probably more, solanine
than even green spuds. I saw some data recently which indicated the
effect of sprouting can be a factor of several times that of greening.
If I can find the reference again, I'll post it. [1]

That said, it's pretty much a dose/unit weight effect, and probably a
fair amount of individual tolerance too (just as with all drugs).

Solanine is pretty heat stable and boiling does not have much effect.
Nor does peeling, as it's readily distributed through the tuber.

I gather the effect of sub-clinical exposure for most folk is little
more than a touch of the squirts ("loose bowel syndrome" and you
probably don't even know you've been "poisoned" -- most folk probably
blame that extra glass of plonk with dinner. :-)

Don't know about effects in utero on bubs, or on breast milk.
(But cows' milk typically reflects diet. :-)

[1] Not the one I had in mind, but here's a quote from "Warning: 1" at
http://www.innvista.com/health/foods...les/potato.htm

<quoting FWIW>
The best way to avoid this is to throw out any green potatoes or those
sprouting "eyes" as these also have high levels of solanine.
</quoting>

Cheers, Phred.

--
LID