There’s what??? in my peanut butter?

Salmonella in my Little Debbie peanut butter toasty sandwich crackers?
What’s it gonna be next! There has always been the danger of salmonella in eggs. We found it turning up last summer all over fresh fruits and veggies and now peanut butter? I was informed by the NYTimes this morning that, “Peanut Corp. has recalled all peanut butter produced at the Georgia plant since Aug. 8 and all peanut paste produced since Sept. 26. Health officials are focusing on 30 companies out of a total of 85 that received peanut products from the Georgia plant.”

The “Peanut Corporation of America – Processors of the World’s Finest Peanut Products” announced a recall of peanut butter, peanut paste and now Little Debbie Peanut Butter Crackers as they remind us that it “prides itself on the quality and freshness of its products and strives constantly to maintain an environment in compliance with federal, state and local regulations and guidelines to provide a clean, safe product.”

Safe? If they ‘maintain an environment that is in compliance. . . then perhaps there is a problem with what those standards are. I don’t know much about making ‘peanut products’ like ‘peanut paste’ but I sure wanna know how you get salmonella in there. The 2008 outbreak affecting tomatoes, jalapenos, and cilantro was related to contaminated irrigation water and caused at least 1329 documented cases in 43 states. You can check out this most awesome map that the CDC put together in an effort to control the disease ummm I mean, work with other government agencies to keep our food safe oh wait. . . . never mind – let’s just get back to the peanut butter.

The FDA is a great source for tracking product recalls related to this outbreak. To date, recalls have been announced by: Peanut Corp, Little Debbie, Hy-Vee, Perry’s, Kellogs – including Austin, Famous Amos, and Keebler, and King Nut bulk peanut butters and pastes. If you have purchased any of the recalled products in the last 5 or 6 months, throw them away, but retain the ‘freshness code’ just in case you get sick because that is the information the CDC and FDA will want to know.

The CDC is actually a big part of tracking down the source of this outbreak and they tell us that “To date, no association has been found with major national brand name jars of peanut butter sold in grocery stores.” They have been issuing updates daily since January 8th and you can read all about it on their website.

More from the CDC:

“The Minnesota Department of Agriculture Laboratory isolated the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium from an open 5-pound container of King Nut brand creamy peanut butter. This product is distributed in many states to establishments such as long-term care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities, restaurants, delis, cafeterias, and bakeries.”

“The Connecticut Department of Public Health Laboratory and the Georgia Department of Agriculture independently isolated Salmonella from unopened 5-pound containers of King Nut brand peanut butter.”

“Clusters of infections in several states have been reported in schools and other institutions, such as long-term care facilities and hospitals. King Nut is the only brand of peanut butter used in those facilities for which we have information.
King Nut is produced by Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely, Georgia.  This facility is now recalling two products it makes:  (1) peanut butter and (2) peanut paste at the Georgia facility.   In many instances, the peanut butter and peanut paste is further distributed to manufacturers to be used as ingredients in many products, including cookies, crackers, cereal, candy, ice cream and other foods.”

The CDC website goes on to tell us that “most persons infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12–72 hours after infection. Infection is usually diagnosed by culture of a stool sample. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days. Although most people recover without treatment, severe infections may occur. Infants, elderly persons, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely than others to develop severe illness. When severe infection occurs, Salmonella may spread from the intestines to the bloodstream and then to other body sites and can cause death unless the person is treated promptly with antibiotics.”

Woe to all of us who eat of the industrialized food supply! The human race has done so much – we invented the printing press, the internal combustion engine, the atomic bomb. . . . we have reproduced at a rate that is arguably parasitic and leveraged ourselves as the most dominant species on the planet since trilobites (which, I guess, were actually a class of arthropods consisting of more than 17,000 species, so yeah. . .) but bacteria will be our downfall.

More information on Salmonellosis. . . .

I wrote this article for Bloomingfoods. The current recalls do not affect products that are stocked at Bloomingfoods and as with past recalls, staff are tracking the outbreak, keeping customers informed and removing all product that is addressed in a recall. Safe eating!