Fact or Fiction: The heat is in the seeds

Welcome to Fact or Fiction, a new online column in which we dive into the truth behind some well-accepted foodie wives’ tales – and reveal whether they’re fact or fiction. Fact or Fiction: Most of the heat in peppers is in the seeds Fiction. The majority of the capsaicin (the active component that gives chile peppers their heat) is in the pepper’s internal membranes – the white flesh often referred to as the veins. In fact, the seeds of the pepper do not produce any capsaicin. However, when you cut a pepper open, the capsaicin is released onto the seeds. Therefore, to effectively remove the heat from a chile pepper when cooking it, it is best to eradicate both the seeds and the white fleshy membrane from the produce.