They are traditionally eaten as a pickled snack food, primarily in the Mediterranean basin (L. albus), Latin America (L. mutabilis) and North Africa (L. angustifolius).

Today, lupin are commonly found in Mediterranean countries like France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, in South America and across the Middle East.

Lupins are currently under widespread cultivation in Australia, Europe, Russia, and the Americas as a green manure, livestock fodder and grazing plant, and high-protein additive for animal and human foods.

[5] In Australia, the danger of cross-pollination of the wild bitter and cultivated sweet low-alkaloid variety is understood to be unacceptable when testing reveals the presence of one bitter bean per hundred sweet beans, and a wide quarantine zone is maintained around lupin-growing croplands to prevent wind-blown wild pollen from having a large influence on crop toxicity.

[7] In Egypt, lupin is known by its Egyptian Arabic name "termis" (ترمس), and it is sold by street vendors as well as local markets as a snack, especially during the Sham el-Nessim festival.

In a 100-gram (3+1⁄2-ounce) reference amount, raw lupins supply 1,550 kilojoules (370 kilocalories) of food energy and are moderate-rich sources of B vitamins, especially folate at 89% of the Daily Value (DV) (table).

Mediterranean cultures prefer the historic bitter lupin beans with the required toxin-removal by traditional leaching in water preparation methods due to the better flavour that results.

Improper preparation of bitter lupins with insufficient soaking allows pharmacologically significant amounts of the anticholinergic alkaloids to remain in the beans, and poisoning symptoms result.

[citation needed] While the alkaloids found in raw and dried beans are bitter and unpalatable to many, with soaking the level is reduced.

[13][14] Symptoms of lupin bean poisoning (from excess alkaloid in cooked food) include dilated unresponsive pupils, confusion, slowed thought and disorientation, flushed face and/or fever, high heart rate and blood pressure, tremors, difficulty with or slurred speech, in-coordination, dizziness, burning dry mouth, stomach pain, and anxiety or "malaise".

[15] Many human symptoms are described in the Australian government's evaluation of lupin food and livestock fodder export safety standards in the medical literature review section:[16] Current media describes the symptoms when referring to recent Australian Medical Journal reports of poisoning from overly bitter lupin flour used in foods reported in the media.

This can be a significant problem for allergy sufferers since breads, pastries, pizzas, pasta, cakes and ice cream are all commonly sold over-the-counter, and all may contain lupin.