Peonut Butter Lovers - BEWARE!

A couple of weeks ago I turned on the local news and heard about another food recall because of salmonella contamination. And since then, each day when I turn on the news I hear more and more about products containing peanut butter that are being recalled. This week I hear that some peanut butter products are being taken off grocery store shelves because of this latest salmonella outbreak! And although at first it seemed to be only a minor outbreak, it has become more serious with each passing day! As I understand, at this point, there have been six deaths associated with this outbreak and at least 486 people have become ill. As of today, over 125 products are affected from more than 70 companies. The first cases were reported September 3, but most cases occurred between October 1 and December 31. About 18 percent of the victims were hospitalized as a result of their illness, and patients' ages have ranged from 2 months to 98 years.

Ohio-based King Nut Companies issued a total recall of peanut butter that it distributes after the company acknowledged in a statement that salmonella had been found in an open 5-pound tub of King Nut peanut butter in a Minnesota nursing home. Salmonella Typhimurium seems to be the culprit! King Nut stated that peanut butter sold under its label was manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America. They gave no other details on the manufacturer, but Peanut Corporation of America's Web site lists its headquarters as Lynchburg, Virginia, and says it has processing operations in Virginia, Georgia and Texas.

Also on the news this week I heard that the outbreak is suspected to have originated in or be linked to the Georgia plant! I am not sure how true this is. But I am glad that King Nut Companies have issued this news release and have taken action to get the outbreak under control. Interestingly enough, this recall comes after two years ago when ConAgra issued a recall on Peter Pan brand peanut butter (linked to around 625 salmonella cases in 47 states). Remember that?

So far most of the products have been sold to businesses such as cafeterias, hospitals, nursing homes and other such institutions where children and the sick and elderly are that may already have a weaker immune system and will be more susceptible to this strain of salmonella. But if you are a peanut butter lover as I am, I am sure that you may want to know exactly what products are being recalled because of suspicion of containing salmonella. The links below will take you directly to the FDA site.
FDA has created a searchable list of products and brands associated with the expanded PCA recall. This list is available on the FDA website at:

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm

FDA has updated their Web site with information regarding the outbreak. FDA Web site:

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph.html