Although the US food supply is among the safest worldwide, products such as meat, poultry, fruits, vegetables and nuts can potentially be exposed to unsafe bacteria - such as salmonella - that can cause illness.

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At Blue Diamond® we take every step available to deliver safe and wholesome products. Blue Diamond® promotes and practices good agricultural and manufacturing practices (GAP's & GMP's) to ensure our almonds are processed, packed and sold under the most sanitary conditions.

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To further reduce the potential for contamination, Blue Diamond® pasteurizes all its almonds. In simplest terms, "pasteurization" means heating a food to a specific temperature for a specific length of time and then immediately cooling it in order to reduce the presence of harmful bacteria that can cause food-borne illness.

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Blue Diamond® was the first processor in the industry to advocate for and adopt pasteurization. Although Blue Diamond® has pasteurized its products for decades through many types of processes (roasting, blanching, etc.), validation studies and implementation of effective controls for process verification were not initiated until the early 2000's. The USDA mandated an industry-wide pasteurization program in 2007. As a result, all almonds must now be pasteurized before being sold to consumers in North America.

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To date, the FDA has approved oil roasting, dry roasting, blanching, steam processing and propylene oxide (PPO) processes as acceptable forms of pasteurization for almonds. We do not use PPO in our processes.