## 1 Introduction  
The almond (_Prunus dulcis_) is one of the most popular dried fruits consumed in many countries in the world. It is highly appreciated by consumers thanks to its composition in terms of macronutrients and micronutrients [1] and because its regular consumption has many beneficial effects for human health [2, 3]. Almonds are widely used to produce almond milk, snacks and yogurt, as well as being widely used in the food industry and in the confectionery industry [1, 4]. As often happens with nuts, legumes, cereals, and many other foodstuffs, during the production, storage and marketing steps, contamination with insects or pests is one of the biggest problems [5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. As reported in [10, 11], the main pests of harvested almonds are the Indian meal moth (_Plodia interpunctella_), naval orangeworm (_Amylois transitella_) and red flour beetle (_Tribolium castaneum_). The proliferation of these parasites contributes to quantitative and qualitative losses of the product as well as to the loss of competitiveness for the entire supply chain. Therefore, before almonds are marketed, post-harvest phytosanitary treatments are often required to control insect pests. Chemical and physical methods are used for managing these issues. Thanks to the cost-effectiveness and ease of use, disinfection via chemical methods such as fumigation with hydrogen phosphide and propylene oxide is widely used across the globe to prevent or treat insect and pest control. On the other hand, fumigants have hazardous effects on humans and the environment, they require skilled and certified professionals for their use, insects can develop resistance to fumigants, and a low dose of chemical fumigation may be ineffective for killing insects in the egg stage. Additionally, the increasing demand for organic foods, and several other economic and ecological reasons, hinder the commercial usage of fumigants [10, 11, 12]. As reported in [13], non-chemical methods such as cold storage, a controlled atmosphere and low pressure require lengthy exposure as well as high investment and management costs. In addition, thermal treatments with hot air are not very effective since the high resistance to heat transfer by conduction triggers a slow heat transfer rate in almonds; thus, lengthy treatments and high running costs result [14]. Considering these drawbacks, electromagnetic fields at microwave (MW) frequencies may provide a valuable alternative for post-harvest insect control in dried agricultural commodities. MW heating has no harmful residual products, it does not leave any chemical residue in the food, it reduces adverse effects on the environment, it kills insects, larvae, eggs and others and it affects the reproduction of the survivors [15, 16, 17, 18, 19]. Additional advantages of MW systems, in the context of industrial plants, include (i) operator safety, (ii) process automation, (iii) fast and efficient heating, (iv) a reduced footprint compared to traditional heating technologies, (v) preservation of the nutritional quality of the food and (vi) compliance with the international environmental rules and with the requirements of the Montreal Protocol [20]. Food processing and production plays a significant role in man-made global greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to about one-third of them. Microwave technology has proven to be efficient for reducing energy consumption and heating time as well as to enable a higher heating rate, thus demonstrating itself to be eco-friendly and able to reduce the carbon footprint [21, 22]. Although MW heating can readily deliver energy to generate heat in the moist portion within foods, some factors as thickness, geometry and dielectric properties of the food, as well as the geometry of the treatment chamber, can affect the heating uniformity [23, 24]. As a result, some changes in the chemical composition of the flavors (combined perception of compounds responsible for taste and aroma), color and texture, negatively affect the overall quality of the food.