This New Type Of Poppy Seed Won't Make You Fail Drug Tests

From a Seinfeld episode to real-life drama, poppy seeds have been a source of comedy, angst, and compromised jobs. Consuming too many of the seeds on your morning bagel can cause you to test positive for heroin, and depending on the nature of your job, that could be cause for immediate dismissal. The issue is a serious one, and as a result one company has created a new variety of poppy seeds, ones that have low levels of morphine.

The new type of poppy seed was created by a UK-based company called FDL, and it aims to enable workers to eat bagels without fear. The new type of poppy seed was specifically engineered to have low levels of morphine while retaining the delicious flavor utilized by bakers around the globe. The goal is to reduce or eliminate those unfortunate positive drug tests.

Though there's nothing forcing bakeries to use this new strain of poppy seed, it is likely we'll see it come into popular use as long as the flavor isn't off. Increased instances of people testing positive for morphine and heroin is causing some people to avoid breads containing poppy seeds altogether, impacting sales at bakeries where once-popular breads and bagels aren't selling as well as they used to.

According to FDL division director Dr. Gareth Elwin in an interview with FoodNavigator, these new poppy seeds are the byproduct of two different types of seed: a cheap UK variety with high morphine and a type of low-morphine seed. The result is a variety that contains less than 20 part-per-million, an amount that should all but guarantee that someone won't test positive from a single breakfast meal.

SOURCE: Food Navigator