Are commercial seeds safe to eat?

I was sorting through seeds this weekend for our seed library,  and found a good amount of old peas and beans from before 2020. We don’t like to distribute seeds of this type that are more than 4 years old due to reduced viability.

I had a thought that I might cook them up, which is what I would do with seeds from my own garden that I am not going to plant. However, theses were commercial seed packets.

Does anyone know if seed companies treat garden seed in some way that would make them not safe to eat?

They may, or they may not have been treated, depending on the region and the seller. Most regions now require treated seeds to be colored, but it is not the case everywhere.

What you can do, is a germination test: Count 30 seeds of each variety you have, sow them, and check if they germinate. If 10 grow, you have a 33% germination rate. That means you just have to triple the seeding rate if you want to grow them. Or tell the people you give the seeds to.

Some are.  Most aren't.

It's common practice for seed growers to help the plants die down quickly once the seeds are formed to make harvest easier.  This isn't always done with the same standards as food seeds.  To avoid this, organic seeds are the way to go.

Inoculation or other treatment may also be an issue.

And seeds for seed don't have to have the same storage standard as seed for food.  Rodent urine or stuff to diswade rodents are possible, but less likely.

That said, most small scale, locally grown and processed, organic seed companies would normally be safe.  Nice thing about small companies like that is we can call them up and ask.

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I wonder if a germination test and note with the seeds saying how old and the test results would help?  Education opertunities for seed library members to learn about the benefits of germination testing?