Organic almond supporters roast pasteurization plan

[nosmokes]

original-sfchronicle
Organic almond supporters roast pasteurization plan

George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, August 23, 2007
A new food regulation that mandates the pasteurization of California almonds leaves a bad taste in the mouth of Jesse Schwartz, a purveyor of raw organic almond butter and other natural foods in Berkeley.

For 25 years, as president of Living Tree Community Foods, he has done business with small Central Valley farmers, and now, effective Sept. 1, he'll have to buy raw nuts for processing from Italy, Spain and Turkey - almonds of lesser quality, he will tell you.

"Almonds are a part of the heritage of the American people, and it makes me very sad that they're about to dump a fumigant on our American heritage," Schwartz said, referring to a method of pasteurization that involves chemicals.

After two outbreaks of salmonella bacteria poisoning that were traced to almonds - in 2001 and 2004 - the Almond Board of California, the industry's trade association, proposed to the Department of Agriculture that mandatory sterilization be imposed in the name of consumer safety. The government agreed, the rule was written and was scheduled to take effect next month.

On Aug. 1, the Almond Board's directors, fearing there was insufficient sterilization equipment and too few operators in place to treat the nuts and deliver an uninterrupted supply, petitioned for a postponement of the rule to March 1.

This week, the government denied the request, confident the deadline can be met.
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complete article here

[Trillo]

1. How does salmonella get into a fresh, roasted almond?

Serious question.

[yewberry]

3. The almonds were raw.

They were tainted in the processing plant.

Dang, raw almonds are one of my favorite snacks.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Well there's little reason to bitch about China's safety standards.

[valerief]

4. Katrina killed way more people, including the people Kenyon shoveled away,

and the gummint hasn't ordered that the NOLA levees be built properly.

So they really don't care about the health of Merkans. They's all gittin rich off them foreign almonds.

[porphyrian]

5. Can't they pasteurize without chemicals?

Would that be too costly? It just seems to me like there is probably a better compromise than this.

[AngryAmish]

6. I would think irradiation would kill off the nasty bugs

I think irradiation is more expensive, tho.

[porphyrian]

7. You're probably right. And I'm not sure how that plays with the "organic" label.

Update -

I just did a cursory search on pasteurization, and irradiation is another form of pasteurization, but with similar drawbacks to chemical pasteurization. Here's one article about it:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/irradlink.cfm

Time for a new breakthrough in the industry, I suppose.

[nosmokes]

8. irradiadiation is *NOT* pasteurisation, although the food industry would

love for you to have the same warm and fuzzy feelings about irradiated food as you do about your pasteurised milk.

[porphyrian]

9. It was categorized as such somewhere I looked.

It may be in the same category as far as legal terminology, or maybe it was a corporate website, I don't know. A few more rads are the least of my worries at the moment (not that I want a lot of them), but flavor does matter to me.

[nosmokes]

10. Oh, I don't doubt for a second that it was. That's the meme from the

processors, especially in the meat industry so they won't hafta tell the truth about what's actually done to the product. Whether radiation alters almonds or not I don't know, but it does do some damn tricky things to beef, pork, chicken and other food stuffs that have been tested. The big money players don't want you to know this however, very much like they don't you to know that there are significant unanswered questions and health implications regarding GMOs in our foodstream. But it sure does make some folks a shit load of money. And if someone wants raw almonds or raw milk then why shouldn't they be able to get that product? I'll take raw organic milk over rBGH commercial dairy milk any day and have a much more wholesome healthy product.

Anyhow, my point is that you and I both know radiation ain't pasteurasation and we shouldn't let the bastards get away with this shit. Words matter. If it's irradiated then that's what the label should say, not *pasteurised.*

[blogslut]

11. Pasteurization = heat

Am I correct? Isn't it also possible to pasteurize almonds via steam? Does this cook them? Will steam pasteurization perhaps lessen the nut's nutritious properties? I recall asking this before and heard that the steam might lower the levels of good enzymes.

[porphyrian]

13. I think applying any heat does that, changing its chemical properties and flavor.

The trick is to get enough of the pathogens killed without destroying the taste and nutrients. I think steam would do this slightly differently than dry heat, but I'm not sure how. It would be worth experimenting with, assuming they already haven't.

[porphyrian]

12. Yes, we need truth in labelling. It's a shame they've managed to bypass the law on it...

...with creative re-wording and legal redefinition. "Lite" comes to mind.

Anyway, maybe there's a way to use the legal loopholes to our advantage and still have access to raw milk and almond butter.