'ornamental' pepper plants-not fit to eat?

I saw an ad in the Jewel flyer for potted peper plants. But the ad said the plants were not edible-not for consumption. The peppers look like tiny yellow, red and orange jalapenos. What is the story on these plants?

Probably sprayed with pesticides.

They're a grocery and, as a consequence, are regulated by health authorities. If they're selling something that isn't certified for human consumption they aren't about to go out on a limb and tell you to chow down. It may well be that the "ornamental" peppers are safe after a good washing (or maybe even without), Jewel just doesn't want a spate of complaints from consumers who try to eat them.

The general concern is that they may have been treated with a systemic pesticide.

rickster wrote:The general concern is that they may have been treated with a systemic pesticide.

That, and lacquers and waxes and stuff like that.

Botanically, they're just dwarf versions of other peppers and perfectly edible. But the stuff that's sold in supermarkets around the holidays as "ornamental" is treated to stay pretty for as long as possible.

The ornamental peppers I have eaten in small quantities were all grown by me from seed. The fruits tend to have thin walls with a lot of seeds and are pretty hot but well short of habanero hot. They are probably more useful for flavoring an oil or vinegar than actually going into a dish.

Pepper plants grown to maturity in greenhouses are likely to have white fly and fungus problems. Some systemic insecticides are very good for controlling white flies. I wouldn't think of eating anything that had been treated with a systemic although tasting a bit of a single fruit is unlikely to cause problems. There is a pretty good chance that the ornamental peppers sold with mature fruit were treated with systemic insecticide and fungicide.