How many apple seeds would poison you?
The claim: Apple seeds are poisonous.
Last checked 16 October 2026
Far more than you'd ever eat by accident, and only if you chew them. The hard seed coat keeps the cyanide locked up until the seed is crushed. For an adult, it takes the chewed seeds of many apples to reach Europe's safety limit; for a small child, the chewed seeds of a few apples. Raw apricot kernels are a different story: less than one large kernel can reach that limit for an adult, and a child has died after eating a handful.
Apple seeds contain amygdalin, the same compound as bitter almonds, which releases cyanide when the seed is crushed. The table below works out how many chewed seeds, and how many apples' worth, reach Europe's safety limit for one sitting and the low end of the lethal range, for your body weight.
Where the cyanide is
A UK study measured amygdalin in the seeds of fifteen apple varieties:
Amygdalin contents of seeds from fifteen varieties of apples ranged from 1 mg g-1 to 4 mg g-1.
The amygdalin contents of the apple seeds could generate between 0.06 and 0.2 mg cyanide equivalents per gram of apple seeds
The cyanide is locked up until the seed is crushed. Europe's food safety authority, EFSA, explains:
When plant cells are physically destroyed, e.g. by chewing or grinding, the CNGs come into contact with the β‐glycosidase enzymes and are degraded with the release of HCN.
CNGs are cyanogenic glycosides such as amygdalin; HCN is hydrogen cyanide. The same study found a little amygdalin in shop-bought apple juice, but none in juice pressed from apple flesh and skin alone.
Swallowed whole or chewed
The US Poison Control service, run by the National Capital Poison Center, explains why a swallowed core is a different thing from a mouthful of chewed seeds:
The seeds are protected by a hard outer shell.
You would need to chew or grind hundreds of seeds and swallow them to release enough hydrogen cyanide to cause toxicity.
We found no study that measured how much cyanide whole, unchewed apple seeds release. The table below assumes the seeds are chewed.
Two different lines: the safety limit and the lethal dose
As on our almonds page, two lines matter: EFSA's safety limit for cyanide in one sitting, its acute reference dose (ARfD), and the dose reported to kill.
An acute reference dose (ARfD) of 20 μg/kg bw was derived from an exposure of 0.105 mg/kg bw
The acute lethal oral dose of cyanide in humans is reported to be between 0.5 and 3.5 mg/kg body weight (bw).
bw means body weight.
How many seeds, for your body weight
The table uses the weight of an apple seed measured in a 2021 study, and the full set of seeds a normal apple forms:
Also, the thousand-grain weight, which usually indicates the endosperm content in the seeds, was found to be 44.83 g (GD) and 45.32 g (RD) with no significant difference noticed between cultivars.
When all ovules are fertilized and develop into seeds, the full complement is ten for each normal apple.
| Seeds or kernels | Cyanide per gram | Cyanide per seed or kernel | Reaches EFSA's safety limit | Reaches the low end of the lethal range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple seeds, chewed (Bolarinwa and colleagues, 2015) | 0.0569–0.222 | 0.00255–0.0101 | 6.31–24.6 g, 139–549 seeds, 14–55 apples' worth | 158–615 g, 3,481–13,724 seeds, 348–1,372 apples' worth |
| Bitter apricot kernels, raw (EFSA, 2016) | 0.5–3.8 | 0.25–1.9 | 0.368–2.8 g, less than 1 to 6 kernels | 9.21–70 g, 18–140 kernels |
| Apricot kernels at the EU legal maximum (EU Regulation 2023/915) | 0.0193 | 0.00963 | 72.7 g, 145 kernels | 1,820 g, 3,636 kernels |
GD and RD are Golden Delicious and Red Delicious. Apples vary: the bulletin found most hold fewer seeds than the full set, and some varieties more, so treat apples' worth as a rough guide. Children are smaller, so the same seeds hit them much harder: try a child's weight.
Apricot kernels: the one to worry about
The kernel inside an apricot stone carries far more of the same compound. EFSA assessed raw apricot kernels in an opinion of their own:
Thus the ARfD would be exceeded already by consumption of one small kernel in toddlers, while adults could consume three small kernels.
For adults, three very small kernels could be consumed, but consumption of less than half of a large kernel could already exceed the ARfD.
In adults, 20 or more kernels were reported to be toxic while the corresponding number in children was five.
The EU caps how much cyanide raw apricot kernels sold to shoppers may contain; the table includes a row at that legal maximum. New Zealand's food safety agency summarised recent poisoning reports, including this one:
Her parents reported that she had eaten approximately 10 apricot kernels.
The patient remained on supportive care in the intensive care unit (ICU), but died on the 22nd day of hospitalisation.
The patient was a girl of two.
What you'll hear at the table
Here is each apple seed claim, checked against its source.
You'll hear: Apple seeds contain cyanide.
Holds up
They contain amygdalin, which releases cyanide when the seed is chewed or ground.
The amygdalin contents of the apple seeds could generate between 0.06 and 0.2 mg cyanide equivalents per gram of apple seeds
You'll hear: Swallowing apple seeds can kill you.
Doesn't hold up
Not the seeds in a core you swallow by accident. Chewed, it takes thousands of seeds to reach the low end of the lethal range for an adult, and hundreds for a small child (see the table).
Apple seeds contain very little amygdalin, so swallowing the seeds in an apple core is safe.
You'll hear: Someone died from eating a cup of apple seeds.
Not settled
Poison Control repeats the story but doesn't say where it comes from, and we could not find the original case report, so we can't check it.
There is a reported case of death in an adult who chewed and swallowed a cupful of apple seeds.
You'll hear: Apricot kernels can poison you.
Holds up
Raw bitter apricot kernels can. EFSA reports toxic effects in adults and in children, a small child reaches its safety limit with less than one kernel, and a young girl died after eating a handful.
In adults, 20 or more kernels were reported to be toxic while the corresponding number in children was five.
The patient remained on supportive care in the intensive care unit (ICU), but died on the 22nd day of hospitalisation.
The referee's verdict
- Right, for the "plants fight back" side: apple seeds really do carry cyanide, released when they're chewed, and raw apricot kernels are a genuine poisoning risk, above all for children.
- Right, for the apple eater: even chewed, the seeds of one apple stay below Europe's safety limit, for a small child too; reaching the lethal range would take hundreds of chewed seeds for a small child and thousands for an adult.
- Not settled: how much cyanide whole, unchewed seeds release; we found no study that measured it.
Try it with your own plate
See what an apple gives you, and what comes with it.
Sources
- Bolarinwa, Orfila & Morgan 2015, Food Chem 170:437–442 (opens in a new tab)Evidence: Measured in foodRead: PDF text layer, in Chrome
- EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) (2019). Evaluation of the health risks related to the presence of cyanogenic glycosides in foods other than raw apricot kernels. EFSA Journal 17(4):5662. (opens in a new tab)Evidence: Regulatory assessmentRead: PMC full text, in Chrome
- EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) (2016). Acute health risks related to the presence of cyanogenic glycosides in raw apricot kernels and products derived from raw apricot kernels. EFSA Journal 14(4):4424. (opens in a new tab)Evidence: Regulatory assessmentRead: Wiley full text, in Chrome
- Poison Control (National Capital Poison Center). An apple a day keeps the doctor away. But what about the seeds? (opens in a new tab)Evidence: Not applicable. A US poison centre's public guidance.Read: page text, in Chrome
- Manzoor and colleagues (2021). Assessment of physical, microstructural, thermal, techno-functional and rheological characteristics of apple (Malus domestica) seeds of Northern Himalayas. Scientific Reports 11:22785. (opens in a new tab)Evidence: Measured in food. Seeds of two apple varieties, weighed.Read: full text, in Chrome
- Crandall CS (1917). Seed production in apples. University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 203. (opens in a new tab)Evidence: Measured in food. Seeds counted in tens of thousands of apples.Read: PDF text layer, in Chrome
- Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 of 25 April 2023 on maximum levels for certain contaminants in food, Annex I, entry 2.3.4 (apricot kernels). (opens in a new tab)Evidence: Regulatory assessmentRead: EUR-Lex text, in Chrome
- Cressey P, Saunders D, Auapaau F (2022). Evaluation of food safety risks associated with foods containing cyanogenic glycosides. New Zealand Food Safety Technical Paper No: 2022/29. (opens in a new tab)Evidence: Regulatory assessment. A government risk evaluation; the poisoning reports it summarises are case reports.Read: PDF text layer, in Chrome