Are cherry pits toxic?
On One Hand: Cherry Pits Contain CyanideAccording to the Center for Disease Control, cherry pits contain, on average, 23.5 mg/L of cyanide; black cherry pits contain approximately .078 mg of cyanide. The maximum safe amount of cyanide a human should consume is .05 mg per kilogram of body weight.On the Other: One Cherry Pit Won’t Kill YouAn adult weighing 70 kg could safely consume up to 3.5 mg of cyanide. This is equivalent to approximately 45 cherry pits. Eating one or two cherry pits by mistake is well below the toxicity threshold for cyanide.Bottom LineCherry pits can be toxic and should not be ingested. The amount of cyanide in an individual pit may be more than the CDC average, so the exact number of cherry pits that are “safe” to consume is unclear.
