Is there a sprout dangerous to eat, cooked or not?

If potatoes have sprouted, you should cut out the sprouted part. It’s not safe to eat.

Also, potatoes exposed to too much sunlight get a greenish cast to them. You need to avoid eating that so peel them well thus eliminating the green parts.

Both the green parts and the sprouts contain Solanine which is a neurotoxin so as long as these two parts are eliminated, the potato is safe to eat.

@Buttonstc I don’t think that green potatoes are safer if you cut out the green bit. The green bit is chlorophyll which is not dangerous to us but it does indicate that the changes have taken place which produce the toxin. The toxin is then present in the whole potato.

However the levels of the toxin in a potato are very low and would have a very minimal effect.

So don’t eat green potatoes if you can but they probably won’t harm you anyway.

Green potatoes are safe to eat if peeled and boiled, as the toxin is water soluble and dilutes to the point of not being a danger. Green potatoes should not be eaten if baked or fried.

I have seen an onion sprout occasionally. However, after cutting the sprout & immediately surrounding part of the onion top out, the rest of the onion bulb is perfectly safe to eat.

Now, if I encountered an onion with a roughly foot long sprout sticking out of it, I would promptly plant it, and let it continue to grow.

1)Re. potatoes, the green part, it’s not always visible from the outset. It’s only while peeling that you see it. So the people who eat it with the skin on are heading for what health problem?
2) http://www.ehow.com/about_4571127_safe-eat-potatoes-sprouts_.html
It says taste it after thickly peeling the green part until the bitterness is gone. I wonder how many people have heard that? It doesn’t provide the source though.

How much of a common knowledge is it that potatoes sprouts are not to be eaten?

Green potatoes

Snopes says ‘mostly false’, then follows that with the admonition “discard any potatoes that have green eyes, sprouts, or greenish skins, rather than prepare and serve them, especially to children.” which is stronger that the advice I’ve seen to peel or boil potatoes that have greened. Thus strengthening the ‘myth’ they want to shoot down.

The potato people weigh in.

@ibstubro not just any potato people but the Irish potato people. Excellent provenance…