Capital press., April 13, 2018, Page 20, Image 48

20 CapitalPress.com
April 13, 2018
Almond industry leads the way in food safety
By TIM HEARDEN
For the Capital Press
Almond industry leaders are hail-
ing the apparent success of their de-
cade-old mandatory pasteurization
program as there have been no food-
borne illness outbreaks attributed to
the nuts.
The USDA-empowered Almond
Board of California established the
rule in 2007 for nuts sold domesti-
cally, and many believe the safe-
guard has played a key role in al-
monds’ explosion in popularity and
production since it went into effect.
“Pasteurization is a good way to
control against a hazard while allow-
ing you to utilize the product,” said
Kathryn Foster, the quality director
at Vann Family Orchards’ processing
plant in Williams, Calif. “I’m sure it
must have had a little significance to
(almonds’ popularity).
“I know where it is going is
huge,” she said of the growth of the
industry. “We’re seeing an increase
yearly in the volume of our output.
It’s amazing.”
Pasteurization — the process of
using heat to kill microbes in food
and beverages — has enabled pro-
cessors to maintain almonds’ unique
texture and flavor while all but elim-
inating the safety risk.
Before the early 2000s, con-
ventional wisdom suggested that
low-moisture foods, such as nuts and
seeds, didn’t pose a threat because
harmful microorganisms couldn’t
grow in them, explained Tim Bir-
Tim Hearden/for the Capital Press
Tim Birmingham, the Almond Board of California’s director of quality assurance
and industry services, speaks during the annual Almond Conference in Sacra-
mento. Birmingham said the Almond Board’s decade-old mandatory pasteuriza-
tion program proves the industry isn’t afraid to tackle food safety concerns.
mingham, the Almond Board’s di-
rector of quality assurance and in-
dustry services.
But that changed when salmonel-
la outbreaks were traced to raw al-
monds in 2001 and 2004, the latter
of which led to a widespread inter-
national recall of the nut as well as
granola-type bars, cereals and other
products.
The Almond Board responded by
working with food safety experts, re-
searchers and the USDA to develop
the mandatory pasteurization pro-
gram and best-practices guidelines
for growers and packers.
On Sept. 1, 2007, under a USDA
order, it became illegal to manufac-
ture and sell unpasteurized almonds
in the U.S. unless they’re sold direct-
ly to customers on a small scale or
shipped outside North America.
Processors can use other methods
of treating raw almonds if they can
show it meets a minimum reduction
of salmonella bacteria on the nut,
Birmingham said.
“The industry knew the crop
was growing, and if we had more of
these issues it would be hard to sus-
tain the growth that was happening,”
Birmingham said. “And nobody
wants to put out a product that will
make people sick.”
Today more than 200 treatment
processes have been validated for
use on almonds following specific
guidelines and review by an Almond
Board technical review team, accord-
ing to the organization.
Among the most common meth-
ods is steam processing, in which
a short burst of 200-degree steam
treats the surface of the nut meat.
Almond Board officials assert the
process meets the USDA’s organic
standards without diminishing the
nuts’ nutritional value and sensory
attributes.
“Steam is very efficient ... and
very effective in killing microorgan-
isms,” Birmingham said. “A number
of these processes can be used and
maintain the raw characteristics of
almonds.”
Another technique is fumigation
with propylene oxide, which treats
the surface of the nuts and rapidly
dissipates. It, too, is credited with pre-
serving the nuts’ nutrition and flavor
but has been a target of natural-food
enthusiasts, as the chemical is listed
by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency as a potential carcinogen.
Traditional oil roasting, dry roast-
ing and blanching have also been
shown to adequately reduce contam-
ination levels, according to the Al-
mond Board.
While there are many differences
among treatments, generally lower
temperatures require more time of ex-
posure while hotter treatments take
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less time, Birmingham said.
“There’s not a one-size-fits-all,”
he said.
Birmingham acknowledged there
was concern within the industry
that pasteurization would lessen nut
quality. But “we really did a lot of
research,” he said, “and at the end of
the day it was determined that cer-
tain processes don’t impact the raw
characteristics of the almonds, and
they definitely do not impact the nu-
tritional profile.”
Now some almond producers in
Europe are validating their equip-
ment using the Almond Board’s stan-
dards, he said. Other processes such
as washing the almonds wouldn’t
have been an option, he said.
“If you introduce water, all bets
are off,” he said, noting that it would
allow salmonella pathogens to grow.
“We absolutely want to avoid that.”
In the decade since the rule was
put in place, the Almond Board has
spent more than $5 million on ad-
ditional food quality and safety re-
search and uses its findings to set
guidelines for growers and proces-
sors. The work has positioned the in-
dustry well to comply with the Food
Safety Modernization Act, as many
of the board’s programs are already
in line with the new federal require-
ments, industry leaders said.
The rule has also led to a new in-
dustry of businesses that specialize
in pasteurizing almonds sent to them
by processors as well as vendors
who provide pasteurization equip-
ment to handlers.
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