The Rawtarian Community
The Rawtarian Community is one of the largest online raw food communities. In addition to this community forum, you can browse and search thousands of community recipes added by over 5000 talented Rawtarian Community members just like you!
Visit The Community
Comments
I don’t believe all the produce is irradiated! I’ve seen produce go bad and moldy at TJ’s… and irradiated food wouldn’t go bad… at least not while it’s in the store… I’m sure they sell produce pretty ‘quicklky’.
Plus,(from what we understand) it cannot have the USDA certified organic seal if it’s irradiated.
I haven’t see the thread/link you sent.
After reading your post I was curious myself whether Trader Joe’s nuts were indeed raw. So I thought what better than to ask the source themselves. I contacted Trader’s via email and here is the response I received:
“Thanks for your question. Trader Joe’s Raw Almonds are pasteurized with
steam. They have been pasteurized since 2004. They are considered araw food as they are not heated above 115 degrees and food is still
considered live and active if not heated above 120 degrees. It has been
industry standard that raw almonds be pasteurized since 2004 and the
problems with salmonella and raw almonds occurred. If you are after
non-pasteurized almonds, we offer Raw Valencia Almonds from Spain.
I hope this helps! Marci Trader Joe’s Customer Relations”
So technically, does this mean that their ‘raw’ nuts are in fact raw?
Satchy: Technically YES… but what do the mandatory pasteurization ‘regulations’ say about what temperature is required for pasteurizing?
If you can sprout or grow them then they are still raw. Seeds are probably your best bet. Unhulled sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, have all sprouted for me. If you are not sure about the nuts in grocery stores then two options would be to either replace them with avos or order them from a distributer that either carries them or grows them themselves. Almonds and cashews are the two main nuts that can not be found raw just anywhere. Websites like livingnuts.com and livingtreecommunity.com both carry raw nuts, especially cashews and almonds.
I myself have quite a bias against TJs. I have shopped there twice, and both times were a bad experience. I bought nuts there, they tasted like garbage, I bought frozen fruit, it was not so good. I bought apples and tomatoes, neither one were of good quality. I bought “fresh” mejool dates not only did they taste horrible there was a dead beetle in the container. My opinion is TJs is just another Aldi.