TPPB is dedicated to peanut research that will help Texas farmers produce an overall better peanut. Over 50 percent of TPPB's annual checkoff funds are allocated to research.

Attention Researchers: 2010 TPPB Request for Research

Peanuts and peanut butter are the most popular nut choice, comprising 67 percent of all nut consumption. Although "nut" is it their name, peanuts are actually legumes. Unlike tree nuts such as almonds and pecans, peanuts are grown underground.

Peanut seeds (kernels) grow into a green oval-leafed plant about 18 inches tall. This plant develops yellow flowers around its lower portion. The flowers pollinate and then lose their petals as the fertilized ovary begins to enlarge. The budding ovary or "peg" grows down away from the plant, extending to the soil. The peanut embryo turns horizontal to the soil surface and begins to mature, taking the form of the peanut. From planting to harvesting, the growing cycle takes four to five months, depending on the type or variety.

Varieties

Runner Peanuts
The most widely consumed variety, Runner peanuts have delicious flavor, great roasting characteristics and high yields. This peanut’s medium size makes it an ideal choice for use in peanut butters. Runner peanuts are grown in Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Oklahoma due to their need for a warm climate and sandy, well-drained soil.

Spanish Peanuts
Spanish peanuts are used mostly in peanut candies, peanut snacks and peanut butter. This peanut is easily identified by its smaller kernels and its redish-brown skin. It also has a high oil content, which makes it an excellent choice for extracting oil. Spanish peanuts are grown mostly in Texas and Oklahoma.

Valencia Peanuts
Valencia peanuts are a sweet peanut with a bright red skin. This peanut usually contains three or more kernels in a longer shell. Valencia peanuts are mostly served roasted and sold inshell or boiled. While grown less frequently in the United States, its primary production is in New Mexico.

Virginia Peanuts
Often called “cocktail nuts,” Virginia peanuts are considered large-kernelled. Its size makes it great for processing, particularly for salting, confections and inshell roasting. Virginia peanuts are grown in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.

*Information from The Peanut Institute

Only 0.6 percent of the people in the United States have a peanut allergy according to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, and up to 20 percent of these can be outgrown.

New approaches to managing peanut allergies are being developed and promising research is underway to find novel therapies for combating peanut allergy.

Oral immunotherapy has been the most promising new therapy, in which increasing levels of peanut allergen are fed to allergic children in a controlled research setting over a number of weeks. One study showed that children could eat up to 10 peanuts, while in another mini study demonstrated they could eat up to 15
peanuts without a reaction – many more than they would ingest accidentally.

These results remain experimental and this approach should only be conducted in a research setting, but they are especially promising, since they were effective for all of the children in these studies.

Peanut Allergy Fact Sheet

The Fine Print on Peanut Allergies

Peanut Allergy White Paper