Damn Peanut Butter!!!

[Katie]

I was sick last week with what I thought was food poisoning. Guess who has a jar of bad peanut butter

ATLANTA Feb 15, 2007 (AP)— Government scientists struggled Thursday to pinpoint the source of the first U.S. salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter, the kid favorite packed into millions of lunchboxes every day.

Nearly 300 people in 39 states have fallen ill since August, and federal health investigators said they strongly suspect Peter Pan peanut butter and certain batches of Wal-Mart's Great Value house brand both manufactured by ConAgra Foods Inc.

Shoppers across the country were warned to throw out jars with a product code on the lid beginning with "2111," which denotes the plant where it was made.

How the dangerous germ got into the peanut butter was a mystery. But because peanuts are usually heated to high, germ-killing temperatures during the manufacturing process, government and industry officials said the contamination may have been caused by dirty jars or equipment.

"We think we have very strong evidence that this was the brand of peanut butter. Now it goes to the next step of going to the place where the peanut butter was made and focusing in on the testing," said Dr. Mike Lynch, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The suspect peanut butter was produced by ConAgra at its only peanut butter plant, in Sylvester, Ga., federal investigators said.

ConAgra said it is not clear how many jars are affected by the recall. But the plant is the sole producer of the nationally distributed Peter Pan brand, and the recall covers all peanut butter smooth and chunky alike produced by the plant from May 2006 until now.

"We're talking a lot of jars of peanut butter," said Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

FDA inspectors visited the now shut-down plant Wednesday and Thursday to try to pinpoint where the contamination could have happened. The FDA last inspected the plant in 2005. Testing was also being done on at least some the salmonella victims' peanut butter jars, but investigators said some may have already been discarded.

Man I love to eat peanut butter....now I have to throw away both jars I have

[ZariusTwo]

Aww, I know what will cheer you up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=areyUfCNFxY

[MadPirateBunny]

I don't know about Katie, but I know *I* feel better.

Edited: It's not just that brand but I found two of my jars both with that number on them.
One jar was open and no one had gotten sick (my winter cold not counting) but I threw it out anyway. Bleh

[Raph's Girl]

I've been saying for years that Peanut Butter was evil. But did anybody believe me?? Nope.... No ya'll are suffering cuz Captain Hook poisoned Peter Pan....

[iris]

I hope you feel better, Katie!

Peanut butter is not evil. I would totally risk food poisoning for my peanutbutter. But not any of those brands with sugar and stabilizers added.... "Roasted peanuts" should be the only thing on the ingredients list.

Honestly, if people would let us use radiation in our decontamination processes, we'd have virtually no food poisoning from packaged goods. We could easily irradiate spinach and other raw-food products. People are scared of the word "radiation" though. :p

[XERO]

What's next, jelly?

Peanut Butter and Jelly: Death in a Sandwich.

Produced and directed by John Woo.

[Warhorse]

I know, what is next? Mad cow disease break out, bad tomatoes and spinach, now peanut butter.

Maybe something is trying to tell us something?

[Aelia]

It's telling us that people should be more careful with the packaging of certain products.

[Raph's Girl]

Originally Posted by Warhorse

I know, what is next? Mad cow disease break out, bad tomatoes and spinach, now peanut butter.

Maybe something is trying to tell us something?

Tomatoes??? I don't think Tomatoes went bad..... it was Spinach, Lettus, Green Onions, Milk, and now Peanut Butter.

Plus Taco Bell and Olive Garden also had issues with food making people sick.

[Warhorse]

Florida had a stint of bad tomatoes for a while. They were making people sick, and the scientists think it had something to do with the pesticides that were used.

[Ra]

Ooo...that's nasty. Good thing that didn't happen here; I frequently devour peanut butter whenever I can. It makes you wonder with all of our modern technology and understanding of hygiene, things like this still happen. Hope you are feeling better, Katie!

[OA]

Originally Posted by Warhorse

Florida had a stint of bad tomatoes for a while. They were making people sick, and the scientists think it had something to do with the pesticides that were used.

hmmm, i dont really remember that? When was that?

And today, I glanced at my jar of PB and sure enough it had that 2111 stock number on it!...i didnt get sick from it even though I had eaten about 3/4 of it, but I took it back to the store anyways to be sure...

[iris]

Originally Posted by Ra

Ooo...that's nasty. Good thing that didn't happen here; I frequently devour peanut butter whenever I can. It makes you wonder with all of our modern technology and understanding of hygiene, things like this still happen. Hope you are feeling better, Katie!

But it's news because it doesn't happen very often. We only know about it because it's caught and traced back through the system that's in place. Otherwise, they'd just be random cases of food poisoning.

If people are really interested in this type of thing, CFSAN has a food safety listserv. I was on it for a while (for my last job), and there are more product recalls than we hear about in the news, but they catch things pretty fast.

An FDA scientist who worked on the spinach scare told me that produce, eaten whole and raw, causes the most problems. Statistically, it's the most hazardous. Which makes sense, since it's raw. There's not much to be done about that; standards are already pretty high. They never actually figured out how the spinach got contaminated.

You always take a risk when you eat something without cooking it.

But the food supply is pretty safe. Most cases of food poisoning are from improper handling in the kitchen and improper food storage.

[Warhorse]

Originally Posted by TMNTerminator

hmmm, i dont really remember that? When was that?

And today, I glanced at my jar of PB and sure enough it had that 2111 stock number on it!...i didnt get sick from it even though I had eaten about 3/4 of it, but I took it back to the store anyways to be sure...

I think it was around the spring time of last year. I remember, because I like my tomatoes in my salad, and there was a month of them being absent from the shelves. They were the fresh cherry tomatoes that were affected.