Raw Almonds — No Longer Raw

Have you heard the news about raw almonds? Read about it here. The law just went into effect requiring all US almonds to be flash pasteurized. Even almonds that are labeled as “raw” won’t truly be raw because their outsides will have been hit with hot steam to kill any bacteria on the surface.

I questioned the wholesaler from whom we buy almonds. According to them, the government’s claim is that the flash pasteurization doesn’t alter the viability of the raw almonds because it is done so quickly and only to the outside. Perhaps. We will see. I would prefer to have truly raw almonds.

Here’s another thing I learned — to be sold here, only US almonds are required to be flash pasteurized, while imported raw almonds won’t have to be processed at all. So we might be able to buy truly raw almonds from Italy, but at what cost? They’re bound to be more expense because of the cost of importing them, and they’re not local (or at least fairly local).