Small seed, big taste: how does it work?
The quality of the poppy seeds used is crucial for the perfect poppy-seed baked goods. As one of the few manufacturers of poppy-seed products worldwide, we therefore accompany the manufacture of our poppy-seed products from the selection of the poppy seed variety to the cultivation of the poppy seed and the production through to the finished product. In our poppy competence centre located in the Czech Republic, we combine poppy tradition with state-of-the-art technology. Walk with us along the path that every single seed travels.
Variety & growing area
The Czech Republic is a leader in the production of edible poppies and the Czech blue poppy has been included in the European “Register of Protected Designations of Origin and Protected Geographical Indications” since 2021 (Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/147 of 2 February 2021). Due to the know-how that our subsidiary IREKS ENZYMA s.r.o. has in this field, our poppies are grown and processed there.
Growing & harvesting
Contract farmers with a lot of poppy experience take care of the cultivation of the plants for us. In early summer, the flowering fields offer a spectacular sight – even if only for a short time: The silky petals fall off and what remains is a small, spherical capsule containing up to 3,000 bluish seeds. These ripen until it is time to harvest them in August and September. This is done with the help of a special combine harvester that drives through the waving poppy fields and carefully cuts off the poppy capsules with the mower, making sure that as little plant sap as possible escapes. While still in the thresher, the poppy seeds are freed from the capsules and first plant residues.
Cleaning
Once it arrives at our poppy processing plant, the edible poppy is separated in several steps from any remaining leaves, flowers and stems . To ensure that the quality, purity and sensory properties of the poppy are right, we use unique analytical methods. Only particularly fine, undamaged and uniformly dark blue food poppy seeds pass this test.
Processing
How is the pure edible poppy seed turned into a baking ingredient for poppy seed fillings? First, the poppy seed is analyzed once again qualitatively, thermally stabilized by heat and ground to different degrees of fineness depending on the desired end product. Other high-quality ingredients are then composed and mixed together with the ground poppy seeds.
Quality & safety
The edible poppy we process, which are closely inspected, have an inherently very low morphine content. Our processing method reduces the content even further, so that the total content of the opium alkaloids morphine and codeine in our poppy seed is far below the limits of Regulation (EU) 2021/2142. Before the quality products from the poppy seed competence centre in the Czech Republic make their way to bakeries and confectionery bakeries around the world, they are subjected to additional sensory and baking technology tests.