Watch: I got third degree burns on my face by eating poisonous cashew nut shell from an exotic fruit market

The video clip captures the moment a travel content creator bites into the ‘wrong part’ of an exotic fruit he bought from a market, while holidaying in Mexico. Thomas Harold Watson, 28, says he experienced a burning feeling like "fire" going across his mouth immediately, as he unwittingly bit into the outer shell of a cashew nut.

Cashew nuts grow on cashew trees, with the nut encased in a hard shell, attached to an edible fruit known as cashew apple. Thomas, from Luton, Bedfordshire, said he’d heard cashew apples were edible and was keen to try one – but had no idea about the dangers of biting into the cashew nut casing - a hard shell which contains cardol and anacardic acid - which can cause vicious burns.

Despite biting into the fruit at a market in Campeche, in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, last Wednesday 1 May, he says his injuries have still not healed and is worried it may leave permanent scarring across his face.

Thomas, a construction site manager and travel influencer, said: “I’d heard about it but never tried it in the flesh, so I bought it, went for a walk and started eating a few different fruits. The cashew nut grows on the side of the apple, so I thought I’d open it up – it felt like a passion fruit, and I bit into this sac which exploded straight away. Instantly it felt like fire, I could feel this fire going across my mouth.”

His whole face was ‘completely burnt’ the next day. He added: I could not believe the pain just from biting into one case - even my hands have gone discoloured from where the acid burnt them so badly.” He later discovered from a Google search that workers who shell cashews can suffer from severe burns to their hands and arms, but says it won’t put him off trying new exotic foods.