Many years ago when the laboratory screening test cut-off level for opiates was 300 ng/ml, eating poppy seeds might have been a legitimate explanation for the presence of opiates in urine. Today, laboratories use a screening cut-off of 2,000 ng/ml cut-off level to eliminate false positives caused by eating food with poppy seeds. And laboratories now also confirm the presence of 6-acetylmorphine at 10 ng/ml using GC/MS before reporting a positive opiate result. 6-acetylmorphine is a metabolite of heroin, but is not a metabolite of poppy seeds. Therefore, the presence of 6-acetylmorphine rules out that a positive opiate test is due to eating poppy seeds.