Is the peanut butter in my cupboard safe? What should a mom do when peanut butter and other peanut products are recalled? Seems almost un-American to stop making those beloved PBJ's. Peanut butter has been a staple as a family-friendly convenience food for decades.
Of course I have thrown out my Keebler peanut snack crackers that my son loves and any other products on the recall list. (See the list at the end of this post.) Just to be safe, I am giving the FDA some more time before I begin spreading the peanut butter at my house even though according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the FDA says the recall does NOT include "peanut butter sold in jars, such as Jif or Peter Pan, which the agency said is safe to eat."
Due to the potential of contamination with salmonella, the Peanut Corporation of America is recalling all peanut butter made at its Blakely, Ga., processing facility on or after July 1, 2008 according to a company press release.
According to the FDA report on the Salmonella Typhimurium Outbreak:
On January 16, PCA expanded its voluntary recall to include all peanut butter produced on or after August 8, 2008, and all peanut paste produced on or after September 26, 2008, in its Blakely, Ga., plant because of potential Salmonella contamination.
Initially investigators thought the peanut butter contamination was only in products used in institutions because they had purchased bulk containers of the recalled peanut butter from the Georgia processing facility.
According to the US News and World Report as of today, Monday, January 19th the latest recall list includes:
- Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products Inc. is recalling all Wal-Mart Bakery brands of peanut butter cookies, peanut butter no-bake cookies and peanut butter fudge no-back cookies.
- The South Bend Chocolate Co., of South Bend, Ind., is recalling assorted chocolates, valentine hearts, peanut butter fudge and peanut butter chocolate fudge.
- Food Lion has removed Bake Shop peanut butter cookies from its shelves.
- McKee Foods Corp. of Collegedale, Tenn., recalled Little Debbie Peanut Butter Toasty and Peanut Butter Cheese Sandwich Crackers.
- Hy-Vee Inc., which distributes in several states, recalled various bakery products containing peanut butter.
- And Perry's Ice Cream announced a voluntary recall of select ice cream products containing peanut butter.
- Late Friday, cereal giant Kellogg recalled 16 products containing peanut butter, including Keebler cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers and Keebler and Famous Amos peanut butter cookies.