US Faces Peanut Butter Recall Following Salmonella Outbreak

In the aftermath of as many as 30 people getting sick from a salmonella outbreak in the US, high officials agreed that the best thing to do was to set in place a nationwide recall for peanut butter and other similar products that contain nuts.

Rumor has it that a nut company in New Mexico, known as Sunland Farms, need be held responsible for this outbreak, given the fact that all of the people who got sick across 19 American states had one thing in common.

Thus, they all ate products made with nuts provided by the aforementioned company.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) explains how, “The FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local public health officials are investigating a multi-state outbreak of Salmonella Bredeney infections possibly linked to Trader Joe’s [i.e. one of the brands manufactured by Sunland Inc.] Valencia Creamy Salted Peanut Butter, with a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) identifier of 97111.”

Furthermore, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports a total of 30 people infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Bredeney from 19 states.”

As was to be expected, supermarket managers were left with no choice but to start pulling peanut butter and similar products off the shelves.

Stan Conrad, a professor of microbiology working with the OSU Health and Sciences, explains that not much else can be done.

This is because salmonella cannot be detected by the naked eye and therefore people can only make sure that they do not get sick by reading labels and not purchasing the products and the lot numbers listed in this recall.

Some of the stores that are now busy removing peanut butters and nut products from their shelves are Whole Foods Market, Target, Safeway, Fresh&Easy, Giant Food, and Harry and David.

A complete and updated list of the products targeted by this recall can be found on the official website for the US Food and Drug Administration.

Lastly, officials wished to emphasize that these recalled products need first and foremost be avoided by children under the age of five, people who for some reason or another have a weak immune system, and by elderly adults.