There has been much said and written about the mass peanut butter recall of items affected by tainted salmonella poisoning. These items out of the Peanut Corp of America in Georgia have affected thousands of people, with hundreds falling sick and a handful of deaths already in 2009. This is a mass recall, much wider in scope than the Peter Pan recall as the Peanut Corp of America has said that it is not just peanut butter but also peanut paste items that affect cookies, cakes, and many other products like frozen entrees as well.
With the severe threat of sickness and death from the tainted peanut butter, many are still confused about what is on the list of items affected. However, the truth is that this “list of affected items” is so long and convoluted that it is far easier to list the items that are not affected. In fact, when the list of affected items was cut and pasted into a standard word document, it numbered over 15 pages of items. This is a changing list, but correct as of February 15, 2009.
Companies Not Affected
There are some companies whose entire product line will not be affected by this recall due to the fact that they do not get their peanuts from the Peanut Corp of America. Some of these companies include Beer Nuts, Reese’s, Hershey’s, Weetabix, Smucker’s, Jif, Planters, Nabisco, Kraft, etc. There is a complete and thorough (as well as printable) list of items that are safe. For safety sake, go through the cabinets and pantries of the house and if it is not on the list, throw it out.
Recalled Peanut Items
There are so many items that are on this particular recall for the Peanut products of Peanut Corp of America in 2009 that the excel spreadsheet of the items is 590 KB and the PDF is 540 KB. They have these on the FDA (Federal Department of Agriculture) website. There are stores that have their brand of items affected, most notably in Ralphs, Kroger, Whole Foods, Publix, Fred Meyer, and HyVee. This isn’t all the groceries affected, but some of the more popular groceries.
What is Salmonella
Salmonella is a bacterial infection that can result in diarrhea, cramps, abdominal pain, and fever. Some people that get the illness can rectify their problems within a week, others will need hospitalization. It cannot be prevented by vaccine, only prevention from cross contamination and through thoroughly cooking items to kill the bacteria. For more on Salmonella see Karla Reed’s Salmonella Suite101 article.
For More Information about the Recall
Tina Samuels - Tina Samuels specializes in health, animal, and gardening articles. She authored "A Georgia Native Plant Guide".
