Salmonella Found at Peanut Butter Plant

I love Peanut Butter... who doesn't!? After seeing that hundreds of people (approximately 370) have fallen ill after eating PB, I was concerned. I eat peanut butter almost every day (yes, seriously). According to CNN, Salmonella has been pinpointed to a certain peanut butter plant. Will PB take the hit like Spinach did following the E. coli scare?

Turns out that if you have Peter Pan peanut butter from the Georgia plant... you should probably just toss it. I eat the Smucker's Natural PB, but the last time I was at the store I bought Peter Pan for my boyfriend. After reading this article I ran immediately to cupboard to see where ours was made. With a sigh a relief I put the PB back... it was made in California.

This recall (Feb. 14) is going back to all products from this plant since Dec 2005! Apparently the plant sells products to other companies as well, so also being recalled are:
• Sonic Brand Ready-To-Use Peanut Butter Topping in 6 lb. 10.5 oz cans. Sonic outlets used the topping until Feb. 16, when the product was recalled.

• Carvel Peanut Butter Topping in 6 lb. 10 oz. cans. Carvel also used the topping until Feb. 16, when it too was recalled.

• J. Hungerford Smith Peanut Butter Dessert Topping in 6 lb. 10 oz. cans. The topping is used by retail outlets and restaurants nationwide but is not available for direct purchase by the public, the FDA said.

The FDA claims that because the Salmonella was found in the plant environment, it is very likely that contamination took place prior to reaching consumers. Officials have reported the contamination may have been caused by dirty jars or equipment because the peanuts themselves are usually heated to extremely high (bacteria killing) temperatures during the manufacturing process.

According to this article, the only known salmonella outbreak was in Australia in the mid 1990's and was attributed to unsanitary conditions.