'Blood cashews': the toxic truth about your favourite nut

When it comes to what to eat for the best, good news is seldom undiluted. Take cashews. These sweet nuts, which are technically seeds of the cashew “apple”, are having a resurgence. They are now the most-eaten nut in both Europe and America.

Gone are the days when roasted cashews were served in tiny portions, like caviar. They have become an everyday snack that you stash in your handbag for hungry moments. Tesco sells a vast 750g bag of unsalted cashews under its Aasani label for £7: cashews are still not quite peanuts, but they are edging there.

Cashews have also had happy news on the health front. For years dieters were warned to look on nuts with fear. Cashews were lovely but lethal. Each comma-shaped kernel seemed to make your waist wider and your life shorter.

But now – Yess! – we learn that cashews are actually very healthy: high in minerals, fibre, protein and unsaturated fat. Among the “clean eaters” of this world, unsalted cashews are a staple, whizzed up into milks and butters. Last year The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at the links between nut consumption – including cashews – and chronic disease. High nut intake – including cashews – was linked to lower rates of heart disease and “all-cause mortality”.

I don’t believe in reducing food to nutrients. Yet as I munch on crunchy turmeric- and nigella-seed fried cashews, it’s nice to know they are doing me good. Another favourite is a revival of the old Chinatown staple of chicken with cashew nuts (my version is more fake-Thai, with basil, ginger, soy and lime).

^{Farmers harvest cashews in Guinea-Bissau (AFP)}

But there’s a catch to cashews. As so often, it is those who actually produce these delicious things who are suffering.

The nuts – 60 per cent of which are processed in India – are exceptionally hard to extract. A cashew has two layers of hard shell between which are caustic substances – cardol and anacardic acid – which can cause vicious burns.

Many of the women who work in the cashew industry have permanent damage to their hands from this corrosive liquid, because factories do not routinely provide gloves. For their pains they earn about 160 rupees for a 10-hour day: £1.70.

Some Indian cashew workers have had enough. Last month 17,000 of them went on strike, demanding a 70 per cent pay increase. This will force up Indian export prices, but consumers in Europe may be unaffected, as Vietnamese cashew production increases apace.

Conditions in Vietnam may be even worse than in India. Cashews are sometimes shelled by drug addicts in forced labour camps, who are beaten and subjected to electric shocks. Time magazine has described this trade as “blood cashews”.

^{Cashew nut tree on a ranch near Colombia's Bita River (ALAMY)}

What is a conscientious cashew-lover to do? Sainsbury’s sells Fairtrade cashews (£4.50 for 300g). Other brands to look for are Liberation and Traidcraft. But realistically, only small numbers of consumers will pay more for cashews than they need to. As with dairy farming closer to home, supermarkets should do more to support those whose hard work drives their profits. When we buy sweet, wholesome cashews we don’t want to be colluding in human misery.