National Almond Day 2025 is on Sunday, February 16, 2025: when is the "chocolate day"?

Sunday, February 16, 2025 is National Almond Day 2025. National Almond Day: Four Things Almonds Can Do for You: Flash: Self. National Almond Day: Four

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January

3rd – National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day

8th – National English Toffee Day

26th – National Peanut Brittle Day

February

15th – National Gum Drop Day

19th – Chocolate Mint Day

March

3rd week – American Chocolate Week

19th – National Chocolate Caramel Day

24th – National Chocolate-Covered Raisin Day

April

12th – National Licorice Day

21st – National Chocolate-Covered Cashews Day

22nd – National Jelly Bean Day

May

12th – National Nutty Fudge Day

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June

National Candy Month

16th – Fudge Day

July

7th – Chocolate Day

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20th – National Lollipop Day

28th – National Milk Chocolate Day

August

4th – National Chocolate Chip Day

10th – S’mores Day

30th – National Toasted Marshmallow Day

September

13th – International Chocolate Day

22nd – National White Chocolate Day

October

National Caramel Month

28th – National Chocolate Day

30th – National Candy Corn Day

31st – National Caramel Apple Day

November

7th – National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day

December

7th – National Cotton Candy Day

16th – National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day

26th – National Candy Cane Day

28th – National Chocolate Day

29th – National Chocolate Day

Where is the question about organic almonds and pasteurization? Our farm grows them....?

Organic almond supporters roast pasteurization plan

A new food regulation that mandates the pasteurization of California almonds leaves a bad taste in the mouth of Jesse Schwartz, a purveyor of raw organic almond butter and other natural foods in Berkeley.

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For 25 years, as president of Living Tree Community Foods, he has done business with small Central Valley farmers, and now, effective Sept. 1, he'll have to buy raw nuts for processing from Italy, Spain and Turkey - almonds of lesser quality, he will tell you.

"Almonds are a part of the heritage of the American people, and it makes me very sad that they're about to dump a fumigant on our American heritage," Schwartz said, referring to a method of pasteurization that involves chemicals.

After two outbreaks of salmonella bacteria poisoning that were traced to almonds - in 2001 and 2004 - the Almond Board of California, the industry's trade association, proposed to the Department of Agriculture that mandatory sterilization be imposed in the name of consumer safety. The government agreed, the rule was written and was scheduled to take effect next month.

On Aug. 1, the Almond Board's directors, fearing there was insufficient sterilization equipment and too few operators in place to treat the nuts and deliver an uninterrupted supply, petitioned for a postponement of the rule to March 1.

This week, the government denied the request, confident the deadline can be met.

The rule that was more than three years in the making - one that burnishes the almond industry's reputation for safety or sullies the noble nut, depending upon your view - will apply to about 500 million pounds of almonds sold in the United States annually.

All the nation's almonds, 1.3 billion pounds this year, are produced in the Central Valley. More than half are exported, and those are exempt from the pasteurization rule. Growers at farmers' markets and those selling from roadside stands are also exempt and can sell raw, unpasteurized almonds to consumers. But the share of the crop sold in the U.S. market - to retailers and food processors, for example - is covered.

In most cases, almond handlers - middlemen who buy nuts from growers and sell to customers - will have responsibility for the pasteurization, and some of the work will be done by food processors or third-party companies.

Some of those almonds will be sterilized by oil roasting and blanching. Organic growers will submit their crops to steam heating, a method approved by organic overseers, although many organic growers are still queazy about the rule.

The most common method of sterilizing almonds is propylene oxide fumigation, using a chemical compound that is classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a probable human carcinogen and that was briefly used as a racing fuel that added oxygen molecules to gasoline.

The National Hot Rod Association put a stop to that in 1993 because of propylene oxide's association with cancer, according to a spokesman.

"The only people who can use that stuff are dressed in space suits with rubber hands and masks," said Schwartz, the raw foods advocate who says the pasteurization rule is an overreaction to the two outbreaks and that "nature provides almonds to us in sterile form" protected by husk and shell.

However, propylene oxide has been used for food sterilization - particularly in nuts, spices and cocoa power - since 1958 and is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency.

In the 2001 salmonella incident, several dozen people were sickened in Canada. In 2004, several dozen people were sickened in the United States and eight other countries. In both cases it is believed the almonds came into contact with bacteria at processing plants.

"We said that is unacceptable, that both consumers and our industry are at risk," said Richard Waycott, the chief executive officer of the Almond Board of California, in Modesto. "We said, 'Let's figure out what we can do.' "