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CDC Tracks Peanut Butter Contamination
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.
The highest number of cases were reported in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri. About 20 percent of all the ill were hospitalized, and there were no deaths, the CDC said."
>snip< link
I have two jars of Peter Pan creamy peanut butter, one half eaten.
I checked the lids, and sure enough, they're each stamped with a big, long number beginning with 2111 (denoting that they were produced at the contaminated plant).
I threw them both away.
Apparently, if you mail these lids to the ConAgra foods corp., they'll refund your money, but I don't want to bother. It's not worth the trouble.
I just hope to hell my family and I don't get sick, since we already ate half a jar of it.
I guess Salmonella isn't generally fatal (except to babies, the elderly, and the immuno-compromised), but it sounds awfully unpleasant, to say the least.
I've eaten that crap as recently as yesterday, so I'm seriously hoping I don't get sick.
I guess it's not likely; the fact that only 300 have gotten sick (out of the millions who probably eat this brand of peanut butter) suggests, as the article states, an "off again-on again" source of contamination in the plant.
But anyway... just throw out your peanut butter if the lid is stamped with a number beginning with 1112 (not just Peter Pan brand, but any brand).
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.
The highest number of cases were reported in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri. About 20 percent of all the ill were hospitalized, and there were no deaths, the CDC said."
>snip< link
I have two jars of Peter Pan creamy peanut butter, one half eaten.
I checked the lids, and sure enough, they're each stamped with a big, long number beginning with 2111 (denoting that they were produced at the contaminated plant).
I threw them both away.
Apparently, if you mail these lids to the ConAgra foods corp., they'll refund your money, but I don't want to bother. It's not worth the trouble.
I just hope to hell my family and I don't get sick, since we already ate half a jar of it.
I guess Salmonella isn't generally fatal (except to babies, the elderly, and the immuno-compromised), but it sounds awfully unpleasant, to say the least.
I've eaten that crap as recently as yesterday, so I'm seriously hoping I don't get sick.
I guess it's not likely; the fact that only 300 have gotten sick (out of the millions who probably eat this brand of peanut butter) suggests, as the article states, an "off again-on again" source of contamination in the plant.
But anyway... just throw out your peanut butter if the lid is stamped with a number beginning with 1112 (not just Peter Pan brand, but any brand).
