http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN1436572820070214 Not sure if anyone posted on this, check your peanut butter, below is a email alert I received this morning on it [FONT=verdana,Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The affected jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter have a product code located on the lid of the jar that begins with the number "2111." Both the Peter Pan and Great Value brands are manufactured in a single facility in Georgia. These products may have national distribution. Great Value peanut butter made by other manufacturers is not affected." [/FONT]
Interesting how Great Value is one of the exclusive house brands of Wal-Mart and it's made in the same plant as Peter Pan. A pure coinkidink, I'm sure. ~Falcon
Ahh hydrogenated badness. I make my own peanut butter at the trader joes right here. no emulsifiers. they also sell almonds and have the almond grinder, but I like legumes
It's made by ConAgra Foods. Some local folks here are sick from it. I saw on the news last eve that it's affected Georgia, Tennessee, Oregon, Washington, Alabama and the Carolinas (so far).
"If we cannot protect the nation's supply of peanut butter, one must ask how prepared we are for a terrorist attack on our nation's food supply," Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak (news, bio, voting record) said on Friday. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - All Peter Pan peanut butter bought since May 2006 should be discarded, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday in a statement broadening its warning about salmonella-contaminated peanut butter. ADVERTISEMENT More than 290 people from 39 states have become ill in the food poisoning outbreak, and 46 have been hospitalized, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. ConAgra Foods Inc., which makes Peter Pan, said earlier it was checking the source of the contamination, which may have also affected the Great Value label peanut butter it makes for retailer Wal-Mart. The FDA had said on Wednesday that certain batches of Peter Pan butter may contain salmonella and that all had a product code on the lid of the jar beginning with 2111. The FDA said the suspect Great Value peanut butter also could be identified by the 2111 code. The CDC has identified the strain of bacteria as Salmonella Tennessee, one of many strains of salmonella bacteria. They can cause nausea, diarrhea and other ill effects, but usually the sickness clears up on its own in less than a week. "Although Great Value peanut butter with the specified product code has not been linked by CDC to the cases of Salmonella Tennessee infection, the product is manufactured in the same plant as Peter Pan peanut butter and, thus, is believed to be at similar risk of contamination," the FDA said in a statement. "Great Value peanut butter made by manufacturers other than ConAgra is not affected." The FDA said it persuaded ConAgra to recall the peanut butter on Wednesday, shortly after the CDC confirmed it was investigating the outbreak. "FDA laboratory personnel will analyze samples collected from the manufacturing plant," the agency said. The last major outbreak of salmonella food poisoning in the United States was in November and was linked to tomatoes. It made 183 people ill in 22 states and Canada. Every year, approximately 40,000 cases of salmonellosis are reported in the United States and about 600 people die of it, according to the CDC. Consumer groups have been complaining about federal food safety efforts, saying the various agencies involved, including FDA, CDC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, do not work together well enough. "If we cannot protect the nation's supply of peanut butter, one must ask how prepared we are for a terrorist attack on our nation's food supply," Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak (news, bio, voting record) said on Friday. "As Chairman of the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, I have already been working with Commerce Committee Chairman (John) Dingell to open an investigation into the adequacy of the FDA's efforts to protect our nation's food supply."
Is it just because news is more in your face with the Internet or does it seem that there are more issues with this?
I liked the report that came out a couple days ago in which the public was assured (by ConAgra, apparently) that salmonella is killed by the roasting (of the peanuts) process, so contamination could not possibly have happened as part of the production process. Their hypothesis is/was that the problem was due to possibly 'dirty' jars or lids. Ummmm, these jars aren't reused. They're all brand spanking new pieces of plastic and as far as I know, common plastic manufacturing doesn't really have anything that salmonella could instantly spawn (for lack of a better word) or grow on........... I think it was terroristic aliens. ~Falcon
I have 4 jars of it with the "2111" on it....they were buy one, get one free.. We ate one....no one got sick...no one died.. But I threw away the other 3...kept the lids so I can get my money back from Publix....and ALL the Peter Pan is off the shelf there....went last night to pick up some Olive Oil...
I was kind of wondering the same thing mentioned above by Sheen. Untill the past couple of years I dont recall ever hearing much about this type of contamination of food stuff, now it seems like every other month at least we are hearing about some other food product, mostly veggies and such that I had NEVER heardof this stuff on before, being contaminated. Was I just oblivious to this in the past or is this a new thing, and if it is a new thing why is it happening? Could this be some kind of attack that is just being kept quiet in order to prevent panic?
No, you are not oblivious, it is a combination of things. Traceback methods have progressed, and the agencies responsible for inspection of food products (such as the USDA/FSIS, and FDA) started announcing online recalls which is a better way to disseminate the information. I have been getting these recalls for years and years, but many of them effect only small areas, regions, etc. While we have heard about meat and poultry recalls for years, from everything to E. coli H7:0157, Salmonella, to Listeria Monocytogenes, it seems as though the media is just now learning that non-food items such as spinach, and peanut butter can also be contaminated with microbial pathogens. Of course the FDA only inspects their products/plants about once every five to ten years (if at all, even then they are announced visits) while FSIS requires daily inspection of plants due to the FMIA and PPIA (Federal Meat Inspection Act/Poultry Products Inspection Act). But, don't get me started on that
