California Almonds Pasteurization Program

As a food safety measure, the California Almond industry agreed to an Action Plan to develop an almond pasteurization program following two recalls. All almonds are now pasteurized under a revised outgoing standards rule of the Marketing Order.

Under Federal Law and through the Almond Board of California (ABC), almond handlers shall subject their almonds to a treatment process or processes that achieve, in total, a minimum 4-log reduction of Salmonella bacteria prior to shipment in North America (U.S., Canada, and Mexico). The ABC acknowledges that only treatment processes that have demonstrated a 5-log reduction of Salmonella bacteria, as acknowledged by a letter of determination issued by the Food and Drug Administration, meet the definition of “pasteurization.” However, to ease reading of this content when referring to a treatment process that achieves a minimum 4-log reduction of Salmonella bacteria, the word “pasteurization” is used as a generic term.