Poppy seeds come from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), a flowering plant native to the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia. While the plant is the same species used to produce opium and its derivatives, the seeds themselves contain only trace amounts of opiates and are a legal, widely used culinary ingredient in most countries.
Poppy seeds have a mild, nutty flavour and a distinctive crunch. They are used extensively in European, Middle Eastern, and South Asian cooking — sprinkled on bread and pastries, ground into fillings for cakes and strudels, or pressed for their oil. The seeds can be slate-blue (most common in Western cooking), white, or yellow, depending on the variety.
In Australia, poppy seeds are a common baking ingredient available in all supermarkets. Tasmania is notably one of the world’s largest producers of pharmaceutical-grade poppies, though the culinary seed trade is separate from the pharmaceutical crop.
How it's produced
Poppies are grown as an annual crop in temperate climates. Seeds are sown directly into the field in early spring and the plants flower in late spring to early summer. After the petals fall, the seed pods develop and are left to dry on the plant.
For culinary seed production, the dried pods are harvested mechanically and the seeds are shaken or threshed out. The seeds are then cleaned, graded, and packaged. Major producing countries for culinary poppy seeds include the Czech Republic, Turkey, Spain, and Hungary. Australia’s Tasmanian poppy crop is primarily grown under strict licence for the pharmaceutical industry, though some culinary seed is produced as a by-product.
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