poppy seeds

poppy seeds (pop-ee seeds) noun

Papaver somniferum. The seed of the opium poppy plant, Poppy seeds are very small seeds harvested from the dried seed pods of the plant. The seeds can be found in black, gray, blue and white. They are used both whole and ground in savory and sweet cooking (sometimes as a garnish, such as on the exterior of a bagel, other times as an integral part of a recipe, like when they are made into a paste and featured in pastries or incorporated into a cake as in our Poppy Seed Cake with Orange Marmalade Buttercream).

It is true that ingesting poppy seeds can alter drug tests with results showing positive for opiates. Some say as little as one or two bagels heavily coated with poppy seeds could produce a positive urine test. ¹

References

1. New York Times article: The Claim: Eating Poppy Seeds Can Make You Fail a Drug Test

_{Image: Peter Muka}