Almond Board of California To Falsely Label Pasteurized Almonds As Raw

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Food Scam: Almond Board of California to falsely label pasteurized almonds as

" raw " News Target article by Mike

The Almond Board of California, which oversees virtually 100 percent of the

almonds grown and consumed in the United States and Canada, is now

implementing plans to pasteurize all almonds at temperatures up to 158

degrees (F) and yet have them intentionally and falsely labeled as " raw. "

The decision was made following the 2001 and 2004 outbreaks of salmonella in

almonds, and is based on the intention of the Almond Board of California to

provide a " safe, nutritious product to consumers " but not, it seems, an

accurately labeled food product to consumers.

Although it seems unthinkable to anyone familiar with the fundamentals of

nutrition, the Almond Board fails to recognize any distinction between raw

almonds and cooked almonds. In statements received by NewsTarget, the Almond

Board explained that, " raw almonds that have been pasteurized do not differ

in any significant way from untreated raw almonds. "

Except, of course, for the fact that they are dead. Stating that live, raw

almonds are the same as dead, cooked almonds is equivalent to stating that a

living human being is the same as a corpse.

Raw foods are widely understood by virtually the entire food community to

mean food items kept below 108 degrees (F), beyond which the living enzymes

in foods are destroyed. Pasteurization, in contrast, exposes foods to

temperatures of up to 158 degrees for durations up to 30 minutes. (Faster

" flash " pasteurization can involve much higher temperatures for shorter

durations: 280 degrees (F) for two seconds, for example.) NewsTarget does

not know the precise temperature that will be used for pasteurizing almonds,

but it will without question be a temperature higher than 108 degrees (F),

which means the almonds can no longer be considered raw by any reasonable

person familiar with the definition of raw.

Outcry from the raw foods community

The raw foods community, not surprisingly, is alarmed at the new rules,

which openly condone the false labeling of a food product. Dr.

Cousens, author of several top-selling books on raw foods and founder of the

Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona, told NewsTarget, " This

mandatory almond pasteurization is an effort by the powers that be to limit

access to healthy food. It is a serious attack on people's ability to eat

what they want and support their health. In this important way, it deprives

us of our basic rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is

a serious incursion of rights for a trivial and preventable reason, this

being that the [past] contamination of the almonds was from a single

source. "

For the full article, click on this link:

http://www.newstarget.com/021776.html