A tourist from the United Kingdom suffered third-degree burns across his face after he bit into an exotic fruit in Mexico. Thomas Harold Watson said that he was in enormous pain while he was sightseeing in Campeche, in the Yucatan peninsula, as per a report in the New York Post.

“I could not believe the pain just from biting into one case,” the 28-year-old said, about the incident which occurred on May 1. The worker from Bedfordshire was walking at a nearby market when he spotted a stall selling cashew apples, the fruits that are stuffed with the nut of the same name. Mr Watson, who regularly posts updates from his travels on Instagram, decided to try the fruit after learning that it was edible.

“You can eat the cashew apple fruit, it’s meant to be a bit bitter. 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,” he said.

Describing his first bite, he said, “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.” However, trouble began the next day when he woke up. His face was severely burnt and “scabby”, seeming like it was doused with acid.

“When my lips were all burnt they literally felt like they’d be dissolved, it felt like my lip had gone like baking paper for three or four days,” he recalled, adding that his hands were also discoloured.

Mr Watson later used Google search to understand the hazard. Notably, the caustic combination of cardol and anacardic acid found in cashew fruit can result in blisters when it comes into contact with the skin.

Even then, the 28-year-old did not go to the hospital because he did not want to pay a hefty medical bill. He said that the recovery process is still painful. “A couple of days ago I was able to peel off my whole lip, it was a couple of inches wide. They’re still quite burnt up and not great but way better than they were.”

“It’s always good to eat local foods but I guess it’s also good to have a bit of knowledge about them,” he said.