WEEKEND UPDATE: Nationwide Recall of Peanut Products

RECALL UPDATES THROUGH Thursday, January 29, 2009:

Wells’ Dairy Announces Voluntary Recall of Select Blue Bunny Products

Fieldbrook Foods Corp. Recalls Select Ice Cream Novelty Products
Uncle Eddies Vegan Cookies Announces Recall of Uncle Eddies Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate-Chip Cookies
Peanut Corporation of America Expands Nationwide Recall of Peanut Products
Jenny Craig Recalls Jenny’s Cuisine Anytime Peanut Butter Flavor Nutritional Bars”
SOPAKCO, Inc. Announces a Nationwide Recall of Certain SURE-PAK 12 Meals Containing Peanut Butter Products
Creative Energy Foods, Inc. Recalls Nutrition Bars Due To Possible Health Risk
Carolina Prime Pet Announces Nationwide Recall of Dog Treats
ALDI Statement Regarding Peanut Butter Products Recal
Parker Products, Inc. Recalls Certain Peanut Butter Products
Trader Joe’s Announces Voluntary Recall
Jimmy’s Cookies Issues Nationwide Recall of Various Peanut Butter Cookies
General Nutrition Centers, Inc. Recalls Certain Lots of GNC Triflex Peanut Butter Soft Chews
Perry’s Ice Cream Company Adds Two Products to Voluntary Recall of Select Peanut Butter Ice Cream Products
Aspen Hills, Inc. Recalls Certain Cookie Dough Products
Arbonne International Voluntarily Recalls Figure 8 Peanut Butter Chews
Rain Creek Baking Corp. Recalls Peanut Butter Turtles, Peanut Butter Baskets and Peanut Butter Princesses
General Mills recalls
Recalls from Kroger
Landies Candies Co. Inc Recalls Select Peanut Butter Filled Chocolates
LLC Recalls Certain Health Valley Organic Peanut Crunch Chewy Granola Bars
Food Lion Food recalls
Food Lion Recalls Peanut Butter cookies
Peanut Butter Recall Lawyers: Food Poisoning
FDA Salmonella Site
Subscribe to RECALL E-mail alerts

Aspen Hills, Inc. Recalls Certain Cookie Dough Products; Rain Creek Baking Corp. Recalls Peanut Butter Turtles, Peanut Butter Baskets and Peanut Butter Princesses. Perry’s Ice Cream Company Adds Two Products to Voluntary Recall of Select Peanut Butter Ice Cream Products. General Nutrition Centers, Inc. Recalls Certain Lots of GNC Triflex Peanut Butter Soft Chews. Jimmy’s Cookies Issues Nationwide Recall of Various Peanut Butter Cookies. Arbonne International Voluntarily Recalls Figure 8 Peanut Butter Chews. Trader Joe’s Announces Voluntary Recall.
Parker Products, Inc. Recalls Certain Peanut Butter Products. Links with story

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 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 outbreak may have contributed to the deaths of six people and sickened more than 470 others in 43 states.

The government 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.

The FDA has created a searchable list of recalled products and brands on the agency’s Web site.

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.

Peanut Corp. expanded its own recall Sunday to all peanut butter and peanut paste produced since July 1 at its plant in Blakely, Ga. The recalled products were distributed to institutions, food service industries and private label food companies in 24 states.

“We deeply regret that this product recall has expanded, and our first priority is to protect the health of our customers,” said Stewart Parnell, president of Peanut Corp.

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.

Other recently recalled items that contain peanut butter:

Grocer Meijer, which operates 181 stores in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky: Meijer brand Cheese and Peanut Butter and Toasty Peanut Butter crackers, Peanut Butter and Jelly and Peanut Butter Cup ice cream.

Kroger, the nation’s largest traditional grocery chain: 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, primarily in the West. The company said the ice cream was not sold in its namesake Kroger stores or any other retailers it operates.

General Mills: two flavors of snack bars, LARABAR Peanut Butter Cookie and JamFrakas Peanut Butter Blisscrisp.

Clif Bar & Co.: Some Clif branded bars, including some under Luna and Clif Mojo labels.

Abbott Nutrition: ZonePerfect Chocolate Peanut Butter bars, ZonePerfect Peanut Toffee bars and NutriPals Peanut Butter Chocolate nutrition bars. The items are sold in the U.S., Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore.

UPDATE: Monday, January,19: 9:14 a.m.:

A recall of peanut butter by a Lynchburg company has expanded to include additional products.
Peanut Corporation of America is recalling peanut butter and peanut paste produced at a Georgia facility because “the products have the potential to be
contaminated with salmonella.“
Tests at the plant have shown signs of contamination, but officials have said they are unsure whether the peanut butter is linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds nationwide and prompted Kellogg Co. to pull crackers from store shelves.
On Jan. 13, Peanut Corp. issued a recall of some of its peanut butter, sold to institutions, food service industries, and private label food companies. The newer recall, described in a company statement dated Sunday, expands on that to include dozens of lot numbers.
For a PDF of Peanut Corp.‘s latest list of recalled peanut butter lots, click here.

UPDATE: Thursday, 1/15,2009, 2:18 p.m.:

ROANOKE, Va. (AP)—A peanut butter maker that sells bulk supplies to institutions issued a nationwide recall as officials on Wednesday reported two more deaths associated with a salmonella outbreak. Its client Kellogg Co. later asked stores to stop selling a variety of peanut butter crackers.

Lynchburg-based Peanut Corp. of America issued the recall late Tuesday for 21 lots of peanut butter made since July 1 at its plant in Blakely, Ga., because of possible salmonella contamination. The company supplies peanut paste to Kellogg, which on Wednesday asked stores nationwide to pull peanut butter crackers sold under the Austin and Keebler brands.

Kellogg, based in Battle Creek, Mich., said it hasn’t found problems or received complaints about those products.

“We are taking these voluntary actions out of an abundance of caution,“ Kellogg CEO David Mackay said in a release.

The national salmonella outbreak has sickened more than 430 people in 43 states. Health officials in Minnesota and Idaho reported Wednesday that one death in each state had been linked to the outbreak. Another death in Minnesota and two in Virginia were confirmed Tuesday.

All five were adults who had salmonella when they died, though their causes of death haven’t been determined. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the salmonella outbreak may have contributed.

Peanut Corp. of America said none of the peanut butter being recalled is sold through retail stores. Its peanut butter is made for distribution to institutions, food service industries and private label food companies. The company said the peanut butter is sold under the brand name Parnell’s Pride and by the King Nut Co. as King Nut.

However, the products being pulled from shelves by Kellogg are sold directly to consumers. They include Austin and Keebler toasted peanut butter sandwich crackers, peanut butter and jelly sandwich crackers, cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers, and peanut butter-chocolate sandwich crackers. Customers and stores are asked to hold onto the Kellogg products, but not eat them, until an investigation is complete.

FDA compliance officer Sandra Williams said Kellogg’s move is known as a stop-sale order and isn’t as serious as a recall. Neither Williams nor a Kellogg spokesman could say how many units were involved, but Williams said, “It’s a very large volume.“

Kellogg spokesman Darryl Riley said federal investigators visited company facilities this week.

The Peanut Corp. recall was issued after an open container of King Nut peanut butter in a long-term care facility in Minnesota was found to contain a strain of salmonella. Health officials had recommended nursing homes, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants discard containers of peanut butter linked to the outbreak. The peanut butter was in containers between 5 and 50 pounds.

“We deeply regret that this has happened,“ Stewart Parnell, owner and president of Peanut Corp. of America, said in a news release. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are voluntarily withdrawing this produce and contacting our customers.“

Customers were notified by phone and in writing, the company said.

Kellogg said it gets peanut paste from several suppliers.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture so far has found nothing in samples tested from Peanut Corp.‘s Blakely plant, spokesman Arty Schronce said Wednesday, but added the testing process can take several days.

Authorities have declined to identify the five people who died. But Virginia Health Department spokesman Phil Giaramita said Wednesday the cases there involved an adult over 65 in southwestern Virginia and a younger adult in the northwestern part of the state.

Health officials said a man in his 70s who had numerous underlying health conditions was the second person to die in Minnesota, where 13 people have been hospitalized. The Idaho death occurred in the fall.

The CDC said it appears most people became ill between Sept. 3 and Dec. 31 but mainly after Oct. 1.

King Nut recalled the peanut butter over the weekend in the seven states where it distributed it. King Nut president Martin Kanan had said he didn’t want to wait for Peanut Corp. to act. He did not immediately return a message Wednesday seeking comment on the wider recall.

Besides the Georgia plant, Peanut Corp. of America has plants in Suffolk, Va., and Plainview, Texas.

Georgia agriculture officials have one to three inspectors at the Blakely plant and more people working on the case at the department’s Atlanta headquarters, Schronce said. He said peanut butter plants in the state are inspected once or twice a year and more frequently if problems are found.

—-

Associated Press writers Doug Glass in Minneapolis, Kate Brumback and Mike Stobbe in Atlanta, David Aguilar in Detroit and Thomas J. Sheeran in Cleveland contributed to this report.

UPDATE: Wednesday, 01/14/2009

For more information, including how to identify which lots of peanut butter were recalled, see the company’s statement here (PDF).

Lynchburg-based Peanut Corporation of America has recalled all of its peanut butter produced in a Georgia plant “because it has the potential to be contaminated with salmonella,“ the company said.
“We deeply regret that this has happened,“ Stewart Parnell, owner and president of PCA, said in a statement on the company’s Web site. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are voluntarily withdrawing this product and contacting our customers. We are taking these actions with the safety of our consumers as our first priority.“
All of the peanut butter affected was produced on or after July 1 and was made in Blakely, Ga.
State health and agriculture officials said last week they had found salmonella bacteria in a 5-pound package of King Nut peanut butter at a nursing facility in Minnesota. Officials tested the bacteria over the weekend and found a genetic match with the bacterial strain that has led to 30 illnesses in Minnesota and others across the country.
“The commonality among all of our patients was that they ate peanut butter,“ said Doug Schultz, a spokesman with the Minnesota Department of Health. While the brand of peanut butter couldn’t be confirmed in every case, the majority of patients consumed the same brand, he said Monday.
King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio, on Sunday asked its customers to stop using peanut butter under its King Nut and Parnell’s Pride brands with a lot code that begins with the numeral “8.“ Company president and chief executive Martin Kanan said Monday that Minnesota’s findings validated that decision.
“We did not want to wait around for the results,“ he said.
However, Kanan argued that King Nut could not be the source of the nationwide salmonella outbreak because the company distributes only to seven states — Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Arizona, Idaho and New Hampshire.
The peanut butter King Nut distributed was manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America. In an e-mail earlier Monday, President Stewart Parnell said the company was working with federal authorities.\
Peanut Corporation of America was founded in 1976. It operates facilities in Suffolk; Blakely, Ga.; and and Plainview, Texas.
The peanut butter was distributed to establishments such as care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants. King Nut says it was not distributed for retail sale to consumers.
A woman in her 70s at a northern Minnesota nursing home died after contracting salmonella, although epidemiologist Stephanie Meyer of the state Health Department said it wasn’t clear whether the illness or underlying health problems caused the death. The woman was not at the facility where the bacteria was initially found.
The Centers for Disease Control, in a release later Monday, said the salmonella poisonings may have contributed to three deaths. The CDC didn’t detail the deaths or where they occurred, and spokesman Dave Daigle said the agency would have no other details Monday.
Minnesota officials took the lead because foodborne investigations typically start at the state level. Minnesota officials were coordinating their investigation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other states.
The CDC on Monday raised the number of confirmed cases to 410, from 399 as of Friday, and Mississippi became the 43rd state to report a case. All the illnesses began between Sept. 15 and Jan. 7, but most of the people became sick after Oct. 1.
Kanan held out the possibility that the contamination came from another source, since the salmonella was found in an open container.
“That means there’s a possibility of cross-contamination, somebody could have been cutting a piece of chicken and then stuck the knife into the peanut butter for a peanut butter sandwich,“ he said. “There have been no tests that have come back positive on a closed container.“
The Minnesota lab took 13 samples from the container, and four of the samples, taken from different parts of the container, tested positive for salmonella. Doug Schultz, a Minnesota Health Department spokesman, said if the sample was contaminated from another source, lab tests would be expected to show positive results from near the top of the container only.
But Schultz said lab workers also aim to test unopened containers of the peanut butter and are trying to get such samples from the distributor.
The peanut butter contamination comes almost two years after ConAgra recalled its Peter Pan brand peanut butter, which was eventually linked to at least 625 salmonella cases in 47 states.
CDC officials say the bacteria in the current outbreak has been genetically fingerprinted as the Typhimurium type, which is among the most common sources of salmonella food poisoning.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Three deaths associated with a national salmonella outbreak occurred in Virginia and Minnesota, health officials confirmed Tuesday.
  Two adults in Virginia had salmonella when they died, though it’s not clear that the illness is what killed them, said Michelle Peregoy, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Health. She did not release details about the two people.
  Earlier, Minnesota health officials said an elderly woman in that state had the illness at the time of her death.
  Health officials are urging nursing homes, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants to toss out specific containers of peanut butter linked to a salmonella outbreak in 43 states and possibly to the deaths of three people.
  The recalled peanut butter - distributed by King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio - was supplied only through food service providers and was not sold directly to consumers. King Nut challenged the finding, saying it could not be the source of the nationwide outbreak since it distributes to only seven states.
  The outbreak has sickened more than 400 people and Minnesota health officials announced Monday they had found a match between samples from a King Nut container and the strains of salmonella bacteria making people sick across the country.
  The peanut butter King Nut distributed was manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America of Lynchburg, Va. In an e-mail earlier Monday, President Stewart Parnell said the company was working with federal authorities.
  State health officials in Minnesota said most of its 30 confirmed cases there were linked to the King Nut brand, but they and health officials in other states are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to figure out if there were other sources.
  “The question is, who else distributes this product from Peanut Corporation? We’re trying to find out where else this product would have gone,“ Doug Schultz, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health, said Tuesday.
  The CDC said the outbreak may have contributed to the three deaths.
  Minnesota health officials, who are coordinating their investigation with the CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other states, said one of the three was a nursing home resident in her 70s who died after contracting the illness. But an epidemiologist with the state Health Department, Stephanie Meyer, said it wasn’t clear whether the illness or underlying health problems caused the woman’s death.
  Minnesota health and agriculture officials said last week they had found salmonella bacteria in a 5-pound package of King Nut peanut butter at a different nursing facility. Officials tested the bacteria over the weekend and found a genetic match with the bacterial strain that has led to 30 illnesses in Minnesota and others across the country.
  King Nut Companies on Sunday asked its customers to stop using peanut butter under its King Nut and Parnell’s Pride brands with a lot code that begins with the numeral “8.“
  However, company president and chief executive Martin Kanan argued that King Nut could not be the sole source of the nationwide salmonella outbreak because the company distributes only to Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Arizona, Idaho and New Hampshire.
  Nationally, 425 salmonella cases confirmed as of Tuesday, according to the CDC.
  All the illnesses began between Sept. 3 and Jan. 6, but most of the people became sick after Oct. 1.
  The recalled peanut butter was distributed to establishments such as care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants. No other King Nut products have been voluntarily recalled.
  The peanut butter contamination comes almost two years after ConAgra recalled its Peter Pan brand peanut butter, which was eventually linked to at least 625 salmonella cases in 47 states.
  CDC officials say the bacteria in the current outbreak has been genetically fingerprinted as the Typhimurium type, which is among the most common sources of salmonella food poisoning.