Brown or chestnut? In early autumn, questions about the soil planted with these two very similar fruits return. Issues that are all the more legitimate since the chestnut is perfectly edible, while the so-called “horse chestnut”, toxic, can cause “digestive disorders such as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting or throat irritation”, according to ‘National Food Safety Agency (ANSES).
To distinguish these two fruits, the agency details several physical characteristics that must be taken into account to safely fill your basket.
Shape, size, number of fruits per bug…
The easiest difference to notice is the one between the bugs, those fruit envelopes whose color ranges from green to brown. While the chestnut bug is bristling with a multitude of long, sharp needles, the spikes surrounding those on chestnuts are much more sparse and not always sharp.
Within these bugs, we will rather tend to find a single fruit for the chestnuts, where the chestnuts will almost systematically be two or three on top.
The fruits themselves also have physical differences: the chestnut has at least one flattened face and its shape tends towards a triangle. Opposite, the chestnut is much rounder. Question size, the first tends to be smaller than the second.
To know the fruit, look at the tree.
If you still can’t tell the fruits apart due to their appearance or the insect, you can also take a look at nearby trees for clues.
Chestnut trees have leaves “each composed of ‘small leaves’ (leaflets) oval in shape, which give the entire leaf a webbed appearance,” specifies ANSES. As for chestnut trees, their leaves are “simple”, that is, without leaflets.
Last clue that can avoid food poisoning: the place where it is. While chestnut trees are most commonly found in urban spaces (parks, schoolyards, alleys), chestnut trees grow primarily in woods, woodlands, or orchards.
The confusing names of “chestnut cream”, “hot chestnuts” or even “glazed chestnuts” do not help to dispel the doubts of the neophytes. Thus, chestnuts and sweet chestnuts are the plants that French people confuse the most, as a study by ANSES shows: the confusion between two out of ten plants is linked to a blurring between these two autumnal chestnut trees.
Source: BFM TV
