Q. I’m a fan of almond milk and enjoy it occasionally as an alternative to rice and soy. I also enjoy almond butter and toasted, unsalted almonds as a snack. I just saw something on TV about the dangers of making your own, due to the potential for a cyanide byproduct from bitter almonds. I do not make my own, but this raised questions. How do the makers avoid this problem? How can you tell bitter almonds from regular almonds?
A. Fear not. Bitter almonds and regular, or “sweet,” almonds come from different varieties of trees. You will never encounter bitter almonds being marketed for food use in the United States. Edible almonds, grown mostly in California, are exclusively the sweet, nontoxic variety. But sweet almonds grown elsewhere might contain an occasional bitter almond mixed in.
Interestingly, it’s the toxic bitter almonds from which we must obtain the almonds’ aromatic essential oil. Only they contain amygdalin, a sugar derivative that in the presence of water allows the nut’s enzymes to turn it into glucose plus benzaldehyde plus highly poisonous hydrogen cyanide.
The amygdalin and cyanide can be removed from the nuts by crushing, soaking and washing in water, leaving pure benzaldehyde, also known as oil of bitter almonds. That’s what is used in almond flavorings, even though it is toxic in large amounts. You’d have to drink several hundred bottles of almond extract to get a lethal dose.
