Information on Shelled Peanuts

Types of Peanuts

• While peanuts come in many different varieties, there are four main types. Spanish peanuts are sweet and ideal for peanut candies. Valencia peanuts are also sweet, ideal for roasting or boiling in the shell. Virginia peanuts are ideal for snacking and Runner peanuts are ideal for making peanut butter.

Food Uses

• Several different foods contain peanuts other than peanut butter, peanut oil and peanut snacks. Companies add ground peanuts to foods such as diet bars and protein shakes to raise the protein levels. Imitation dairy products and some animal feed also contain peanuts.

Non-Food Uses

• George Washington Carver, an agricultural chemist, discovered hundreds of uses for peanuts other than food. Peanuts are ingredients in various items including metal polish, paper, fireplace logs, linoleum, detergent, rubber and ink.