Bitter zucchini are poisonous - no ifs or buts. You can find out why this is so here. How you can recognize the danger of poisoning in good time is no longer hidden from you here. This guide explains in a practical and comprehensible way why zucchini from your own harvest are affected more often than bought zucchini from the supermarket.

Eating bitter zucchini can cause health problems

Table of Contents

Show all
  1. the essentials in brief
  2. Why zucchini bitter?
  3. How to recognize bitter substances?
  4. Zucchini bitter overview
  5. Home gardeners beware of cross pollination
  6. frequently asked Questions

    7. the essentials in brief

    • If zucchini tastes bitter, eating it carries a high risk of poisoning with fatal consequences in the worst case.
    • The cause of the bitter taste are the plant's own, poisonous cucurbitacins, which are bred from premium supermarket varieties and are often found in hobby garden zucchini.
    • Too cool or long storage, heat or drought stress activate the production of bitter substances. Boiling or frying does not dissolve the toxins.

    Why does zucchini turn bitter?

    If zucchini tastes bitter, health is at risk. The cause of the dilemma is cucurbitacin, a poisonous plant bitter substance in the peel and pulp. Type and color are irrelevant. Green and yellow courgettes are equally affected. Even small amounts of the plant toxin cause excruciating symptoms such as nausea, stomach cramps and diarrhea. In higher concentrations there is a risk of serious to fatal poisoning.

    The good news is that the toxic bitter substances in garden varieties have long since been bred out. The bad news is that under certain conditions, an unhealthy concentration of bitter substances can still build up. There is usually a serious risk of poisoning when eating home-grown zucchini.

    How to recognize bitter zucchini?

    Before the zucchini is cooked, a piece should be tasted to sort out bitter ones

    The bitter taste of a zucchini cannot be seen from the outside. With a taste you are on the safe side. How to tell if zucchini contain toxic bitter substances:

    1. Wash and cut zucchini
    2. Put a small piece in your mouth, raw and unseasoned
    3. With a mild, fruity-nutty note, prepare and serve zucchini as usual
    4. If the taste is bitter, spit it out and discard the poisonous zucchini

    If you notice an unpleasant, bitter smell before cutting, you can save yourself the taste test. Zucchini poisoned with cucurbitacin smell unappetizing and musty.

    Take care, dear parents. Please always carry out the taste test for your children yourself. In young children, the sense of taste is often not developed enough to recognize a bitter aroma.

    tips

    Mild taste is not the only quality feature for healthy vegetable squash. If you prefer to eat zucchini raw, there are other important criteria to consider. If the goods come from the supermarket and do not have an organic seal, residues of pesticides on the skin make the fruit vegetables unhealthy. Simply peel and nothing stands in the way of carefree zucchini enjoyment.

    Zucchini tastes bitter - when? - What to do? - How so? overview

    Bitter zucchini should be discarded

    Unfortunately, cucurbitacin is an extremely resilient plant toxin that leaves you little room for countermeasures. The following table provides an overview of common initial situations and the correct course of action with a brief explanation of the cause.

    taste test What to do? How so?
    bitter after cooking throw away Poison not water soluble
    bitter after frying throw away Poison is heat resistant
    old zucchini bitter throw away Toxic due to long storage
    frozen zucchini bitter throw away Poison is frost resistant
    slightly bitter throw away the smallest amounts of poison are unhealthy
    Peel tastes bitter throw away Poison is also in the pulp
    Supermarket zucchini slightly bitter throw away overripe zucchini become poisonous

    Throwing it away is the only right course of action when zucchini tastes bitter. The contained toxins do not dissolve under any circumstances. Cooked, fried or frozen zucchini remain unhealthy if the sample before processing tasted bitter. If only the peel tastes slightly bitter, peeling will not prevent the imminent poisoning. Old courgettes that have been stored for too long build up an unhealthy concentration of bitter substances afterwards. This also applies to the very rare case that overripe, bought zucchini from the supermarket tastes bitter.

    digression

    Taste test makes sense for all types of pumpkin

    Toxic cucurbitacin is a natural defense strategy of all cucurbits. Not only the popular vegetable pumpkins zucchini can be permeated by the poison. The biodiversity ranges from crunchy cucumbers and juicy melons to delicious edible pumpkins such as patisson squash or butternut squash. The following rule of thumb applies to preparation in the kitchen: first taste the pumpkin varieties for their bitter taste, only then season and serve.

    Hobby gardeners beware - cross-pollination makes zucchini bitter

    Victims of bitter substance poisoning are often hobby gardeners who grow their own zucchini. The most common cause is the mixed culture with ornamental gourds and the associated cross-pollination. Other causes are drought and heat stress, which cause the content of toxic bitter substances to skyrocket. When harvesting the seeds in the zucchini bed, you can never be sure whether foreign ornamental pumpkin pollen from neighboring gardens has gotten into the genome. This is how you can grow your own delicious zucchini for carefree enjoyment without a bitter aftertaste:

    Do not plant zucchini next to ornamental gourds

    Zucchini should not be planted next to ornamental gourds

    Ornamental gourds naturally contain a high concentration of toxic bitter substances. If busy bees first visit an ornamental pumpkin blossom and then fly to a zucchini blossom, the dreaded cross-pollination with increased cucurbitacin load occurs. The best prevention is a rigorous avoidance of a mixed culture of zucchini and ornamental pumpkin.

    Stress-free zucchini care

    Cucurbitacin's raison d'être is not to spoil our culinary enjoyment of zucchini. Rather, bitter substances in pumpkin plants act as the plant's own protective shield against predators, pests and stress-related growth disorders. Influencing factors such as heat, cold or drought set substance production in motion and cause the bitter poisonous taste in zucchini. Stress-free care stops this process. That is how it goes:

    • Grow zucchini in a warm, wind-protected location without summer heat build-up (heat activates the production of bitter substances)
    • Ideally prefer young plants behind glass and plant out from mid-May
    • Protect against the cold with a fleece cover or foil tunnel (€11.46) (cold makes zucchini bitter)
    • Water regularly when dry (lack of water causes bitter taste)

    Pull out weeds in the zucchini bed with your hands. Hoeing can cause root injury, which the plant responds to by producing cucurbitacin.

    Use certified seeds

    Zucchini seeds from the specialist trade are reliably free of bitter substances. For health reasons, ambitious hobby gardeners will exceptionally refrain from sowing seeds they have obtained themselves. Annually buying certified seed for home cultivation reduces the risk of bitter-tasting zucchini to a minimum.

    The following video provides three important tips for hobby gardeners who grow their own zucchini:

    youtube

    frequently asked Questions

    Why is zucchini bitter?

    The reason for the bitter taste are the plants' own defenses, so-called cucurbitacins, with which zucchini protect themselves against all kinds of disturbances. Breeding interventions could deactivate these toxic bitter substances in commercial varieties. When you grow your own, the bitter toxins are naturally present in many zucchini plants as a result of cross-pollination or unsuitable seed. Furthermore, storing them in the refrigerator or freezing them in the freezer will make your zucchini bitter. At temperatures below 10° Celsius, toxic bitter substances can also form in refined cultivars.

    I ate bitter zucchini. Is that dangerous?

    Eating a bitter zucchini does not have to cause any health problems

    Eating bitter-tasting zucchini does not necessarily have to cause health problems. Your constitution and the amount of bitter substances taken in determine whether symptoms of poisoning will occur. If you experience nausea, cramps or diarrhea after eating, please consult your family doctor. Consuming cucurbitacin is often dangerous when the bitter zucchini come from a hobby garden.

    How to tell if zucchini are poisonous?

    Zucchini should taste mild, fruity to slightly nutty. If you notice an unpleasant odor while cutting, caution is advised. Try a small piece of raw, unseasoned zucchini. If the sample tastes slightly bitter, spit it out immediately and throw the zucchini in the garbage can.

    Why do old zucchini turn bitter?

    Long storage reactivates dormant toxins in zucchini. For this reason, zucchini should be harvested young and stored in a dark and cool place at 12° to 15° degrees for a maximum of one week.

    Can store-bought zucchini taste bitter?

    Zucchini from the supermarket is a noble variety from which toxic bitter substances have been bred. When buying, look for a flawless, shiny shell that only gives slightly when pressed with a light finger. Under these conditions, you can look forward to mild and fruity culinary delights. Toxins that are responsible for the bitter taste may have built up again in soft, overripe, shriveled zucchini.

    What to do if the zucchini casserole tastes bitter?

    Throw the zucchini casserole in the garbage can immediately if it tastes bitter. The bitter taste is an unmistakable indication of impending cucurbitacin poisoning. In 2015, a pensioner lost his life after ignoring the extremely bitter taste and ingesting a deadly amount of toxins while eating a zucchini casserole.

    Can you get rid of bitter zucchini taste by boiling or frying?

    No. There is no culinary trick to refine bitter zucchini. The bitter note indicates that the fruits are poisoned by cucurbitacin. This plant toxin is heat stable and does not dissolve in water. If you cover up the bitter taste with spices and eat zucchini, you have to pay for it with serious symptoms of poisoning.

    tips

    How devastating when laboriously grown zucchini tastes bitter. It doesn't have to come to that if you carry out an early taste test on pumpkin plants you have grown yourself. Taste one of the first cotyledons when growing from seeds on the windowsill. If you notice a slightly bitter taste, the seedling in question will be discarded. This does not replace the final taste test before consumption. At least you'll save a lot of wasted time growing, tending, and harvesting.

Category:

Vegetable garden