Problems with Peanuts
General Mills Inc. and grocers Kroger Co. and Safeway Inc. have joined the growing list of food companies and retailers pulling items made with peanut butter amid a salmonella outbreak.
The Food and Drug Administration has traced the recent salmonella outbreak to a Georgia plant owned by Peanut Corp. of America, which makes peanut butter and peanut paste and sells it to institutions and food companies. The FDA has advised consumers to avoid eating cookies, cakes, ice cream and other foods containing peanut butter until health officials learn more about the contamination. Peanut butter sold in jars to consumers is not included, officials said.
Late Monday, Safeway said some of the products it makes, including Ready Pack Eating Right Kids Apples with Peanut Butter and Orchard Valley Harvest's Organic Bark Peanut Butter Cookies and Cream, may use peanut butter involved in the recall and asked customers to throw them out or return them to the store for a full refund.
Kellogg Co. recalled 16 cracker and cookie products last week. The company said Monday that federal authorities have confirmed that salmonella was found in a single package of its peanut butter crackers: Austin Quality Foods Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter, which had previously been recalled.
Kroger, the nation's largest traditional grocery chain has recalled Private Selection Peanut Butter Passion Ice Cream sold in stores named City Market, Fred Meyer, Fry's, King Scoopers, QFC and Smith's in 11 states, including Colorado. The company said the ice cream was not sold in its namesake Kroger stores or any other retailers it operates.
General Mills pulled two flavors of snack bars, LARABAR Peanut Butter Cookie and JamFrakas Peanut Butter Blisscrisp. Clif Bar & Co.has recalled some Clif branded bars, including some under Luna and Clif Mojo labels. And Abbott Nutrition has pulled their ZonePerfect Chocolate Peanut Butter bars, ZonePerfect Peanut Toffee bars and NutriPals Peanut Butter Chocolate nutrition bars.
So far, six people have died and more than 470 were sickened in 43 states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the bacteria behind the outbreak is common and not an unusually dangerous strain but that the elderly or those with weakened immune systems are more at risk. At least five of the six people who died were elderly. All had salmonella when they died, though their exact causes of death haven't been determined. The salmonella outbreak is the second in two years involving peanut butter. Salmonella is the nation's leading cause of food poisoning; common symptoms include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps.
The FDA has created a searchable list of recalled products and brands on the agency's Web site.
The first lawsuit tied to the recent salmonella outbreak in certain brands of peanut butter was filed on Tuesday against a supplier to Kellogg Co., which has recalled several of its products in recent weeks. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, was filed by Gabrielle and Daryl Meunier, a Vermont couple whose 7-year-old son got sick on Nov. 25 with fever, vomiting and diarrhea.