We all do our best to throw away less food at home. Some things always go bad in the fridge and need to be thrown away, no matter how hard we try. Indeed, the expiration dates for different veggies are not always easy to find, so we have to trust our gut in these situations.

It’s especially hard to keep potatoes fresh for too long. A lot of the time, they will sprout big, bulky leaves before they are ready to be thrown away. Should we throw them away or can we eat them? These green bumps are knotted and make the potato look like it’s going bad. We don’t have to throw away the whole potato just because the chips don’t look good.

The potato is ready to grow when these seeds show up. The potato goes into a more dormant state after it has been picked. If the potato hadn’t been picked, these shoots might have grown into new plants.

The question of whether these potatoes can still be eaten is not a simple one. The seeds themselves are not at all edible. They have a lot of harmful chemicals in them that you should stay away from. You could get headaches, throw up, and have other digestive problems if you don’t listen to the advice and eat the sprouts.

But you can’t just cut off the sprouts and think the potato is safe again. Poison Control says to throw these potatoes away, but Dr. Rich Novy has a different opinion. As a geneticist, he is well-equipped to answer this question. He works for the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA. He thinks the answer is pretty easy.

Is the potato too soft and mushy already? What this means is that it needs to be thrown away. It is still possible to use the potato if it is still hard. If you want to avoid having to make tough choices like this, take the time to store your food properly.