Peanut Butter Keeps You Young... FOREVER!

[Signe]

CDC Tracks Peanut Butter Contamination
By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

2 hours ago

This jar of Peter Pan Peanut Butter shown Thursday, ...

ATLANTA - 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.

About 85 percent of the infected people said they ate peanut butter, and about a quarter of them ate it at least once a day, the CDC's Lynch said. It was the only food that most of the patients had all recently eaten.

"We think there's very strong evidence that it was this brand of peanut butter," Lynch said.

Salmonella sickens about 40,000 people a year in the U.S. and kills about 600. It can cause diarrhea, fever, dehydration, abdominal pain and vomiting.

But most cases of salmonella poisoning are caused by undercooked eggs and chicken. The only known salmonella outbreak in peanut butter _ in Australia during the mid-1990s _ was blamed on unsanitary plant conditions.

ConAgra spokesman Chris Kircher said the company randomly tests 60 to 80 jars of peanut butter that come off its Sylvester plant's line each day for salmonella and other germs, and "we've had no positive hits on that going back for years." But he said the plant was shut down as a precaution for further investigation.

"We're trying to understand what else we need to do or should be doing," Kircher said.

An estimated 974 million pounds of peanut butter are sold each year in the U.S., and peanut butter and jelly is the most popular sandwich among children. Peter Pan is one of the nation's top three brands, though well behind market leader Jif. Great Value peanut butter is also produced by some other manufacturers for Wal-Mart.

In a measure of peanut butter's popularity, ConAgra's hot line was swamped with so many calls after the recall was announced on Wednesday that many people got a busy signal. School officials in Houston confiscated students' sandwiches from home and replaced them with those made at schools. And in Georgia, a lawmaker representing one of the nation's biggest peanut-producing areas warned colleagues to throw out jars of peanut butter that he recently handed out.

The outbreak was detected by the CDC and state health agencies when they noticed spikes in the cases of people sickened by an unusual type of salmonella, starting in August. Once peanut butter emerged as a link, the CDC notified the FDA.

Salmonella commonly originates in the feces of birds and animals, and could be introduced at a multitude of stages in the peanut butter-making process. But many safeguards are in place.

While rodents and birds commonly get into peanut storage bins, germs are killed when raw peanuts are roasted. When making peanut butter, the nuts are again heated _ above the salmonella-killing temperature of 165 degrees _ as they are ground into a paste and mixed with other ingredients before being squirted into jars and quickly sealed.

"The heating process is sufficient to kill salmonella, should it be present," said Mike Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety, in the state that produces nearly half of the nation's peanuts.

Experts say the point in the process where salmonella could be introduced and survive would be as the product cools down, is placed in the jars and then sealed. At most plants, those steps take just minutes.

But "there is quite a lot that happens after that heat step ... before it's put in jars. So there's definitely an opportunity for contamination after the roasting," the FDA's Acheson said.

Acheson speculated a small, on-again, off-again source of contamination caused the outbreak, which would explain the relatively small number of illness. That "will make finding it in peanut butter difficult. But that's not going to stop us from looking," he said.

Other states reporting cases are Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

The strain in this outbreak, Salmonella serotype Tennessee, is comparatively rare, as is salmonella contamination of peanut products, said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

"It's taken them a long time to identify peanut butter as the cause, but that may be because they had to get over their denial. It's just not one of the first things you'd suspect," Smith DeWaal said.

___

To get a refund, consumers should send lids and their names and addresses to ConAgra Foods, P.O. Box 57078, Irvine, CA 92619-7078. For more information, call (866) 344-6970.

___

Associated Press Writers Andrew Bridges in Washington, Josh Funk in Omaha, Neb., and Elliott Minor in Butler, Ga., contributed to this report.

___

[Soln]

step away from the keyboard, and put your hands in the air

[Johny Cee]

My fridge (came with the condo I bought) died two nights ago,  so I've been on a bread, peanut butter, and lukewarm tap water diet.

Now I'm on a bread and tap water diet until my new refridgerator gets delivered.

Damn you Peter Pan.....

[Yegolev]

Choosy moms choose Jif.

[Signe]

I just don't want any of you to die of peanut butter poisoning.  I would feel guilty for laughing.   

[Nebu]

My fridge (came with the condo I bought) died two nights ago,  so I've been on a bread, peanut butter, and lukewarm tap water diet.

Now I'm on a bread and tap water diet until my new refridgerator gets delivered.

Damn you Peter Pan.....

Have you ever heard of a "Wish Sandwich"?

[Samwise]

Superb thread title.

[El Gallo]

I am fucking dying without Peter Pan.  I could consider it my lenten sacrifice, but then what would I eat of Fridays when I'm sick of filet o'fish?

Jif tastes like peanut shells.  Peter Pan like sweet, sweet nectar.  Or high fructose corn syrup.

[Llava]

Skippy.

[Jimbo]

You all realize that Salmonella usually kills the very old, very young, or very sick.  And if you've been eating that jar of peanut butter for a month, it ain't magically gonna make you sick at 3am in the morning!  Goddamn fucking nut cases...please take your dicks and tits out of the peanutbutter, 'cause your fucking nuts!  Oh btw, sure come in and be tested for salmonella, the test takes 10 days to process and you are over it in 2 days, plus I'll bet 10 to 1 you went and took a shit and didn't wash your hands and ended up with salmonella instead of off that PBJ sandwich.

[Miasma]

Another vote for Skippy, I don't think they sell this Peter Pan stuff up here though so I've never tried it.

[Bunk]

You are all dumb. Kraft extra crunchy. Anything else tastes likes its half icing sugar.

Was a report on this on the news last night. Someone already has a class action suit started, one case of it was reported by a soldier in Iraq (got it in a care package), and reportedly there have been fatalities involved.

[Yegolev]

Peter Pan like sweet, sweet nectar.  Or high fructose corn syrup.

It's all the chicken fat they put in it.

[Signe]

I agree with Jimbo.  You should not put your tits in the peanut butter if someone's dick and nuts are already in there.  That is just so eww.

[El Gallo]

You all realize that Salmonella usually kills the very old, very young, or very sick. 

All I realize is that the peanut butter shelf of my friendly neighborhood grocer has a giant, Peter Pan-shaped hole in it 

[Morat20]

You all realize that Salmonella usually kills the very old, very young, or very sick. 

All I realize is that the peanut butter shelf of my friendly neighborhood grocer has a giant, Peter Pan-shaped hole in it 

Mine too. I hope this clears up faster than that fucking spinach mess. Do you know how long it took before I could get fresh spinach leaves in a salad again? (If I'm going to eat a  salad for lunch every day, I want my damn spinach leaves. As least they're not as useless as that iceberg lettuce crap).

[Zephyr]

Wegman's crunchy, sweetened with molasses, not that sickeningly sweet high fructose corn syrup crap.

[Signe]

I go to Wegmans once every week or so for bread and bakery stuff,  meat and produce.  I love their stuff.  I haven't tried their peanut butter but then, it's not something I usually eat.  Nearly everything I get there is great.  I especially love their muffins and bagels.  Every now and then, Righ and I get their Chinese take-away.  It's very good.  The best thing is it's 24 hours here so I can get things at odd times when nearly no one is around.  Everything else, I just get delievered.  I don't like shopping.

[Zephyr]

Yeah, I will miss Wegmans when I move.  It is the only grocery chain where the store brand food is better than the name brand.  Also they have a great and cheap selection of natural foods.

[Paelos]

I'm actually sort of shocked that people eat enough peanut butter to have a brand loyalty. I think I bought a jar I'm still using from summer 06.

[Yegolev]

Two months ago, we bought more peanut butter after finishing a jar we bought in 2001.

[El Gallo]

I'm actually sort of shocked that people eat enough peanut butter to have a brand loyalty. I think I bought a jar I'm still using from summer 06.

If it's Peter Pan, I'll pay you double for it.

[Merusk]

Peter Pan is the Roxxorz, but teh wife keeps buying Jif.  Creamy Jif at that.  Curse her.

We go through about a jar every 2-3 weeks between the kids and I.

[schild]

I'm a big fan of Skippy smooth/creamy. I hate crunchy peanut butter. But I'll tell ya, there's nothing really like Peter Pan. That shit tastes like what would come in a poptart if they made a peanut butter flavor. God damn does it hit the spot when necessary. Almost as good as buckeyes without the chocolate. Though, Nutella has sort of replaced peanut butter for me despite how much worse it is. God it tastes SO YUMMEH.