To protect customers from skin allergies, cashew nuts are removed from their shells because the seeds contain a harmful substance called urushiol and they also have a coating that is full of this toxic liquid, so cashew nuts are not sold in shell. Cashew nuts without shells are actually dark, like a dark brown color. The nuts we buy at the store are never raw. They are usually salted and roasted, because raw cashew would make us very sick.
Cashew, cashew nuts, cashew nuts, did you know that drupes, education, family, fun, lifelong students, trainees, nuts, things to think about strange facts? So the next time you grab a handful of cashew nuts, keep in mind that each of those simple-looking nuts isn't a nut at all: it's a seed that comes from deep in a drupe full of toxic liquid, hanging from the bottom of a fake fruit, and had to be harvested and heat treated before it could safely reach your mouth. Cashew nuts are one of my favorite nuts, so naturally, I enjoyed them as is, but recently I became curious about cashew peels. The reason cashew nuts are sold without the shell is that, unlike real nuts, such as hazelnuts, which form a hard wall directly around the seed, cashew shells have a coating filled with liquid. Even the “raw” cashew nuts from the store have been heat treated to remove toxic oils, they just haven't been roasted.