Are Pistachio Nuts Safe to Eat? - written by Timothy K. Melchior

Pistachios have been in the news lately, mainly because of a Salmonella scare involving one of the processing plants in California. As most people know, Salmonella is a bacterium that can cause severe intestinal problems, fever and even death. So it's natural to ask the question: Are Pistachio nuts safe to eat?

In a word, Yes. Absolutely!

Well, that's two words, so in one word of teen-speak: Totally!

How can I say this with all the headline-grabbing news seemingly to the contrary?
Let's review:

The first fact that stands out in this controversy is that not one single case of Salmonellosis has been reported connected to the eating of Pistachio nuts.
Zero, nada, zilch. So if you aren't eating Pistachios because you are afraid of getting Salmonella poisoning, don't be. With an annual consumption rate of nearly 300 million pounds in this country alone those are pretty good odds. (Actually, 300 million divided by zero is zero so they aren't technically odds at all but you get the idea.)

So what's all the "scare" about? Here are the facts:

In March of 2009, Kraft Foods discovered traces of Salmonella in their Trail mix. Isolating the source of this strain, it was traced back to a small shipment of roasted shelled Pistachio nuts they had received from Setton Farms in Terra Bella, California. Upon being alerted of this fact, Setton immediately recalled all nuts from that particular batch and shortly thereafter, as a precautionary measure, recalled all Pistachio nuts they had processed from the 2008 crop. This was about two million pounds of nuts. Setton also alerted the FDA who did a thorough inspection of the Terra Bella Plant and other Pistachio processing plants and products. No other contaminated product was found.

At this point in time, virtually all of the downstream packaged pistachios have been identified and placed on a recall list, which you can find online by Googling "Pistachio recall". To be absolutely safe, you should not eat any of the products on this list in the unlikely event that you somehow happen to come across them. But you've got to ask yourself how many people did eat these nuts before they were recalled? The fact that no one reported any illness probably means the contamination was slight. So the "scare" now seems to be dying down.

But let's knock on wood here. Just because this particular event turned out to be benign, does not mean that this will be the case in all such occurrences. In fact, recent similar events involving peanuts, spinach and tomatoes did result in people getting sick and in some instances even dying. So this is not something to be taken lightly. Setton is to be commended for their proactive and voluntary actions, but other processors might not be so inclined. Indeed, the Federal Government is debating new legislation right now to significantly bolster the FDA's ability to detect and manage similar contamination in the future and we should all support this.

So where does the Pistachio situation stand now? After they issued the recall, Setton Farms' voluntarily ceased production and worked with the FDA and an independent company, IEH Labs, to review their processing operation and help them implement changes to ensure the safety of their product, not just from Salmonella, but from any pathogen. It is interesting to note that, prior to this contamination, the prevailing view in the industry was that no pathogens could be present in raw Pistachios because of their unique growing pattern and harvesting and processing methods. Now that this has been proven to be untrue, complete pathogen screening is in place at Setton Farms, and they are back in production. They have also shared this knowledge and the new screening techniques with all of the other Pistachio processing plants. So now, you can feel even better about the safety of Pistachio nuts as a product than ever before.

With a wealth of new research showing that Pistachio nuts have considerable health benefits, not eating them could be considered unsafe. Or, at the very least, depriving yourself of something that's good for you.

Oh, and did I mention they taste really, really, really good?

So if you've kept yourself from eating pistachio nuts because you thought you might get sick: relax, break out a bowl of the tasty little green morsels, and enjoy!