Promoting the power of almonds

CHICAGO — If you ask Clarice Turner, president and chief executive officer of the Almond Board of California (ABC), to name all the food applications for almonds, you’d get a similar answer if you asked her to name all her career stops in the food industry: a long and surprising list.

Recently completing her third year as ABC’s leader, Turner sees ongoing strong demand for almonds and a ripe field of opportunity for the commodity at a time when consumers want better-for-you foods, snacks and ingredients and food manufacturers and processors are seeking more options to bring that to them, including in the baked foods arena. California produces 80% of the world’s almond supply, and ABC now counts 14 forms (soon to be 15) in which almonds can be used in snacks, meals and beverages — well above the handful that Turner said she was aware of when joining the board in July 2023.

In furthering ABC’s mission, Turner brings a deep well of industry experience and expertise, spanning consumer packaged foods, beverages, foodservice and agriculture in categories such as bakery, pizza and wine and at companies large and small like PepsiCo, Yum! Brands, Papa Murphy’s, Starbucks, Boudin Bakery and Joseph Phelps Vineyards. A former board member of Blaze Pizza, she currently sits on the board of Delicato Family Wines and chairs the board at Kylix Vineyards.

“I see it as a flywheel,” Turner said when asked about her unique food industry perspective in an interview at IFT FIRST 2026 in Chicago. “I think when you get pull created in any supply chain, you start to get efficiencies. When you’re trying to push, it’s just harder. One of the beautiful things about almonds is that everybody loves them. They’re good for the environment. They’re good for the human body. That creates a lot of pull in ways that many other commodities wouldn’t. I see that in many different sectors, too. I look at all the different things that we did at Starbucks, the things we tried to push. Lots of investment, R&D and marketing up front. And if a consumer didn’t want it, good luck. You’re just going to have to try again. So I think one of the insights is starting with what the consumer wants.”

Modesto, Calif.-based ABC has stoked supply chain and consumer pull by touting the array of formats for almonds, including at the annual food technologists event, where the board’s booth fronted a cluster of displays by various food industry startups.

“Fourteen forms of almonds with endless possibilities — if we were to have a tagline right now, that would be it,” Turner quipped.

One nut, many uses

Besides being eaten directly as a snack, natural or roasted whole almonds may be added to snack mixes and bars, coated or enrobed in various flavors, or used to add crunch and/or a visual flourish to snack clusters and confections. Almonds also may be offered sliced, flaked, slivered, diced and chopped for use in a wide range of applications: ingredients for baked foods, cereals or bars; toppings for baked foods, salads and prepared foods; coatings for savory dishes and ice cream bars; garnishes for baked foods and desserts; crusts for meat and seafood; fillings for baked items and confections; and, in general, to bring more texture and crunch to snacks, confections and other foods. Green almonds, with fuzzy exteriors and soft or creamy insides, offer a seasonal delicacy as well as a cooking ingredient and garnish option.

In addition, almonds may be made into almond butter (for use as a spread or dip, a binder in baked foods, and a filling or coating in confections), almond paste (for use as a filling or binder in baked items to create a chewier texture), almond milk (providing a non-dairy option and flavor ingredient), almond meal (for use as a breadcrumb substitute, snack coating, or texture/crunch agent for baked items) and almond flour (providing a more wholesome, gluten-free flour option). The latter also includes defatted almond flour that yields almond oil.

“Probably the two (almond applications) that most people haven’t heard about would be defatted flour and oil, which is a byproduct of that defatted flour,” Turner said. “Oil and defatted flour have a lot of different applications. We’re actually just learning how many because it solves a lot of different problems that food scientists and R&D chefs are trying to formulate for.”

Defatted almond flour is a more finely ground form of almond flour from which a percentage of the oil has been removed, lowering the calories and fat per serving. ABC said the defatted form’s extra-fine texture and clean taste bring more versatility and fewer masking agents, contributing to a clean, gluten-free label for use in adding density to bars or as a substitute for crusts or a binder. Also, ABC said, almond oil adds a nutty, toasty flavor “to just about anything,” from cakes, cookies, muffins and bread to chips, popcorn snacks, salad dressings or sauces.

“One of the exciting things is, as we start to discover the physical characterization of these different forms, we’re making it easier for chefs to understand how to solve problems, because they’re so versatile and there are so many different physical characteristics that they can influence,” Turner said.

A 15th form for almonds is in the offing: almond hulls. The fibrous outer casings of almond shells, traditionally used in animal feed, offer nutritional benefits like high fiber content, natural sugars, phytochemicals and minerals, as well as processing versatility. That makes them a natural fit for the value-added ingredients food space, such as for baked foods, cereals, nutritional bars and beverages. In May, almond hull powder achieved generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status for human food from the US Food and Drug Administration, opening the door for food companies to explore its use as an ingredient.

“The newest form, our 15th form, that will be debuting is hulls,” Turner said. “We’re just in benchtop commercialization. Our growers have been investing in research on hulls for over 10 years, knowing that we’re a zero-waste crop.

“Now that we’ve got GRAS status, we are off to the races with trying to see where hull powder will get pull. You can push and you can pull in this game that we play in ingredients. But it’s really helpful to see where the pull comes from before you start building a marketing program around trying to sell something. You need to know that the buyer actually wants it.”

That pull will be the surging demand for more fiber in the diet, and Turner said hull powder brings “very, very concentrated fiber.”

“Protein is important, but fiber is also,” she said. “If you can figure out a way to get incremental fiber into your diet, it’s always a good thing.”

Baking foundation

Last year, almonds were included in nearly 10,000 new products worldwide, according to ABC.

“A good deal of those are baked,” Turner said. “I’m learning more and more about the baked goods.”

Turner already has a grounding in baked foods — and in baking traditions. From March 2016 to July 2018, she was CEO of Boudin Bakery, a bakery cafe chain known for its “Original San Francisco Sourdough” and as the city’s oldest continuously operating business.

“I was CEO of Boudin in San Francisco, so I understand bakery,” she said. “The inclusions in bakery and the different kinds of flours that you can use … We were all about sourdough (at Boudin), right? So we didn’t have a lot of mixtures happening. But as you start to peel it back, you understand that there’s a definition of bakery around the world that’s very different.”

Turner cited the influence of French baking traditions worldwide, including on baking practices in Mexico and Morocco.

“As I do travel, I understand bakery from one culture to the other,” she said. “And when you layer the cultures on top of that, you start to come up with some really interesting combinations.”

At Boudin, Turner discovered that sourdough “is a category in and of itself,” beyond its taste and bread characteristics.

“I’ve been eating Boudin since I was a little girl because my aunt who lived in San Francisco loved Boudin bread and knew that sourdough was unique,” she said. “When I first took over Boudin, I was looking at the P&Ls and I’m like, ‘Why do we have such a huge cost with FedEx? What are we shipping all over the place?’ It turns out that, every 30 days, the yeast and the starter morphs enough when you’re not in San Francisco that it actually doesn’t taste this sour. You literally have to burn off the starter and start over. So we were shipping starter to all the bakeries throughout California every 30 days, and it has to be refrigerated. So cold chain, the whole nine yards. But there’s a reason that bread tastes so good.”

She noted that sourdough “has a lot of macrobiotic qualities to it” and represents “a different sort of take on bread.”

“What I came to appreciate, though, is just the artistry in the baking,” she said. “I’m a certified baker for sourdough. And going through all of that, I understand the artistry and the science and how complicated it is.”

With ABC, Turner said she’s working with the board to go “more mainstream” in the flour business beyond “the pastry end of things.” That includes “being able to bring different characteristics to bear within bread” by exploring the potential of blending in almond flour, she said.

“There’s such an emotional tie to bread everywhere in the world that’s amazing,” she said. “Bread is another one of those things that brings people together. So I think that could help the bread industry have more of that appeal.”

Demand for almond flour has continued to grow, Turner said, in large part because of its healthful properties. Almond flour offers a nutritious alternative for gluten-free baking by providing nutrients often lacking in other flours — such as fiber, calcium, iron and protein — and serving as an excellent source of vitamin E and a good source of magnesium, according to ABC.

Photo: ©NATALIIA YUDINA – STOCK.ADOBE.COM

“We have six bakery programs around the world that have launched,” Turner said. “Some are co-funded by local governments because they’re very concerned about their populations and disease. Diabetes is off the charts in many countries, including this one. We have governments who are very interested in trying to understand how can they substitute almond flour, for example, in their indigenous baked goods to help bring that glycemic index down. So we’re working with bakery schools, governments, chefs and pastry chefs in different countries to try and understand how we can be part of that solution from a health standpoint and also functionality. Apparently, almond flour does a lot of great things for baked goods.”

Food industry fast lane

A ninth-generation Californian with deep family roots in farming, going back to 1776, Turner was born and raised in the food industry.

“My family pretty much farms just about every crop you could mention in the state, including almonds,” she said. “So I grew up around it. My dad grew grapes, and I was in the midst of it my entire life.”

Turner was raised among grape growers in Ukiah, an agricultural hub for wine country in Northern California’s Mendocino County.

“I had an appreciation for what it took,” she said. “When there was a frost, the alarms went off in the middle of the night. Every kid, every person, we were all out there lighting all the smudge pots so that the crop didn’t freeze. So you get a real appreciation of what it can take in agriculture to have a crop or not have a crop.”

Turner received a bachelor’s degree in geology from San Francisco State University and later an MBA in international business from its business school. She also attended Fudan University in Shanghai, studying business and the Mandarin language, and underwent executive and board director training at Harvard University and Northwestern University. But she noted that it was PepsiCo that “put my career on the fast track” in recruiting her “straight out of grad school.”

“When Pepsi recruited me, it was a fast-track management program,” Turner said. “It was expected, every two years, that you either get promoted or you’re out. And when you get promoted, it means you have to move. I moved five times in 10 years. And I would be in finance and marketing and real estate and construction, and those weren’t my background. But you were expected to become a general manager; that’s what they were grooming you for. So I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect thing, to grab me out of grad school and put me into all these different environments.”

Seven years at PepsiCo, capped off in the role of national director of Canadian operations, led to eight years at fast-food operator Yum! Brands, most recently as national director of operations. Another stretch in foodservice followed, including two years as president and chief operating officer at take-and-bake pizza chain Papa Murphy’s International and then seven years as a senior vice president and general manager at Starbucks, including roles overseeing the US business, Americas licensing, the global foods and evenings business and, most recently, global supply chain strategy.

After that, she spent about two-and-a-half years at Boudin Bakery and then close to four years as president of family winery Joseph Phelps Vineyards before coming to ABC. She served as a board member at Blaze Pizza for nearly eight years and remains a director at Delicato Family Wines, Kylix Vinyards and Women Corporate Directors, where she is co-chair.

Turner’s broad and deep background has enabled her to take the longer view when it comes to innovation.

“There are so many potential homes for things, but understanding how it starts and how it works its way through, it’s been a really interesting vantage point for me,” she said.

Turner noted “it doesn’t matter how great your product is if you can’t make it through the supply chain” in recalling her experience at Starbucks when it came to pilot programs.

“If you can’t hit these 10 things, just forget it,” she explained. “It has to have shelf life. It has to have a good cost of sales. It has to have application through the supply chain. The baristas have to love it. It has to have a ‘wow’ factor. It has to reinforce the culture. All these things. For most organizations, whether they can articulate that or not, that’s part of the mix, and you may know you’re dealing with that or not as a supplier. That’s the operator in me, saying either the thing is going to work and I can execute it and it’s going to make money in my P&L, or have a nice day.”

Almonds back in balance

At ABC, Turner and her team’s pursuit of innovative uses of almonds, new customers and new markets comes amid shifts in the almond trade. A slightly smaller California almond crop is forecast for 2026 — at 2.7 billion lbs, down 1% year over year — and bearing almond acreage is down for the first time since 1995. Also, ABC said, 2025 marked the fourth-straight year of declines in total almond acreage.

“Total acreage has been coming down for about four years,” Turner said. “Bearing acreage this last year is the first time in a long time that that’s come down. What that means is supply is contracting a little bit. Some of the orchards are aging out, and people are just choosing not to replace them. We’ve had a fair bit of abandoned orchards, too. So supply got ahead of demand for a while. There are many reasons for that. COVID is one of them. We couldn’t get anything shipped out of the port of Oakland, and that’s where most of our product goes out to the rest of the world.

“But because (almonds) have a two-year shelf life, that’s both a blessing and a curse in that situation because then you’re sitting on a lot of inventory. And we had the largest crop in the state’s history on top of it. That caused a little bit of a backlog, and it took some time to work through that. And the farmers didn’t make money for about four years. So we’ve been losing a lot of them.”

About 7,600 farmers in California grow almonds, mainly in the Central Valley, and 90% are families that live on their land, Turner said. The supply-and-demand imbalance, which pulled down almond pricing, “was the case for about four years,” Turner said. But currently, despite elevated input costs, California almond growers sit in a better position to meet the strong demand.

“Now we’re in a place I call equilibrium, where supply and demand have come back into balance,” Turner said. “What I wish for our farmers more than anything else is stability. And that’s part of what we’re trying to do, make sure we do everything we can to create that. So not just marketing the crop almonds, but things like innovation to develop another potential income stream.”