If you’ve ever had nut in shell peanuts, you may recall the thin skin surrounding the peanut that most people don’t eat. While its perfectly safe, and even nutritious, the mouth feel and taste of the skin make it unpalatable for most people. That’s why peanut processors discard the skin as part of the peanut butter manufacturing process. They are used for animal feed.
That’s unfortunate, because peanut skins include beneficial antioxidants. A recent study published by the Journal of Food Science found that the addition of a small amount of peanut skin to peanut butter (1%) had no negative impacts on consumers’ taste perception. Could this usher a new age of reformulated peanut butters?
Do you eat peanuts with their skin?