California Almonds Views

• Grocery Food

In the United States, production is concentrated in California, with almonds being California's third leading agricultural product and its top agricultural export in 2008. California produces 80% of the world’s almonds[11] and 100% of the U.S. commercial supply. California exported almonds valued at $1.08 billion in 2003, about 70% of total California almond crop.[citation needed]

Because of two cases of salmonellosis traced to almonds in 2001 and 2004, the Almond Board of California proposed rules in 2006 regarding pasteurization of almonds available to the public, and the USDA approved them. The almond pasteurization program became mandatory for the California industry on September 1, 2007, and was implemented on a voluntary basis over the previous two years.[33] Since September 1, 2007, raw untreated California almonds have technically not been available in the United States. Controversially, California almonds labeled as raw are required to be steam-pasteurized or chemically treated with propylene oxide. This does not apply to imported almonds,[34] or to almonds sold from the grower directly to the consumer in small quantities.[35] Nor is the treatment required for raw almonds sold as exports to countries outside of North America.

The Almond Board of California (ABC) has been running marketing activity outreach to consumers and health and food professionals for many years in the UK. With the growing trend for healthy snacking, this was the ideal time to launch this campaign to further raise awareness of California almonds among U.K. consumers. The new advertisements, themed around the contents of women

The U.K. campaign will begin in January and will enlist the help of Juliette Kellow, a leading dietitian, to leverage the healthy-snacking message and establish California Almonds as the healthiest nut. The campaign will be rolled out across 17 key consumer titles mdash; both print and online ymdash; including Easy Living, Red and Woman & Home, as well as retail magazines such as Tesco, Sainsbury and Waitrose Kitchen.