tainted peanut butter update

dreamer

New Member
well as it turns out our county now has had several cases of salmonella from peanut butter. (we are a small rural county) THere is one confirmed and maybe 10 pending.

I also read that the factory that was found to likely be the source also sent some from the tainted caselot to various places to be used as an ice cream topping.

Maybe if you did not check your peanut butter the first time, you might wanna check now? There is an address to mail the lid of your peanut butter to get a refund. (I am at library and did not bring the info with me, sorry)
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
Peter Pan has done a major recall on all of it's peanut butter. I suspect that is the parent company of the Walmart brand that started this mess.
 

Sara PA

New Member
Both the Peter Pan and the Wal-Mart peanut butter are manufactured by ConAgra Foods. Any Peter Pan or Great Value peanut butter purchaces since October 2004 with the code 2111 on the lid should be tossed or returned for a refund.
 

busywend

Well-Known Member
Or Skippy.

I recently called it Jiffy - LOL- because I do not eat either of those brands. I love Peter Pan. I eat a bit of it just about everyday - well, not since this recall. And come to think of it, I have put on most of my pounds in the last few weeks, when not having my bite of peanut butter. I can tell I am eating more. I digress.

Anyway, there has been no Peter Pan on the shelves of the grocery store since this was announced. There is no way I would have Peanut Butter in my house since 2004 (see above). I can not imagine anyone that would, doesn't it expire?
 

dreamer

New Member
Seems many of the people here where I live did not bother to check their peanuit butter. They continued to use it.
The recall has been extended to include a couple more items......like some peanut butter ice cream toppings or something like that?

But these cases I posted about yesterday here by me are NEW cases within the last 10 days.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
I may be mistaken, but I didn't think the ice cream toppings were ever available in grocery stores. I thought they said they were only distributed to fast food restaurants (Sonic?) in large commercial-sized containers. If this were the case, recalling it would be a lot easier - the restaurant chains would simply stop using it!

I was never much of a peanut butter fan ... but then I bought a huge jar of the honey-roasted flavor and LOVED it! It does taste just like honey-roasted peanuts! I had already eaten a little of it when the recall came out ... I looked at it and it did have the numbers involved in the recall on the lid! So I threw it out, just to be safe, but I hated to do it.

Two things I'm still not clear on ...

... Would anybody still be using peanut butter that had been on their shelf since 2004??? Yuk!

... and if this involves peanut butter made ever since 2004, how come nobody got sick from it in 2004 ... or 2005 ... or 2006???

 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I cant imagine anyone still having peanut butter around since 2004...good grief. PB doesnt last in my house a month, if that long. What do they buy...a 50 gallon drum of it? I can just see it. "Honey, please get Sweet Pea out of the vat of Peanut Butter, she fell in again."

I havent seen any of the effected brands on our shelves either. Im sure they will be back when its over. I will have to try that honey roasted type Donna...sounds good.
 

dreamer

New Member
sure people do still have peanut butter from 2004. Especially older people........some older people used to buy things on sale and forget about them....You would be surprised the things you find when doing home health care. I had clients with canned soup from 1978. SOmetimes it was a matter of something getting shoved to the back repeatedly.

We have things in our fridge, diff salad dressings that occasionally I go thru and check the dates and toss what is old becuz someone will decide they like some type and use some of it, get burned out on it and then not use it anymore.

ALso people might have gotten sick previously on the peanut butter, but if it happened sporadically the "pros" would maybe not peice it together sooner. Salmonella is not always severe, - if the symptoms were mild, which was likely the case, people very likely never sought healthcare and never got tested to see what made them feel under the weather and they probably passed it off as a 24 hour flu bug or something. And many times normally healthy peoples bodies simply fight off some things without causing any outward symptoms at all, if they have heathy immune system.

There are many many illnesses and bacteria etc that people get exposed to or fight off without ever even being aware they had been exposed or infected.

SO it see3ms here where I am many people either did not hear about the recall, (maybe they do not read the paper, do not watch the news, maybe they were busy with day to day life- who knows the reason? and they continued to use their peanut butter after the recall? Or maybe they had already eaten some of it and had not noticed any illness symptoms so decided it would be silly to toss it, and I do not know if peanut butter is a great medium to grow salmonella or not, but maybe the salmonella was not solid thruout their jar? Or maybe after their jar was opened, maybe then it was able to grow even better and THEN the people got sick.
I also do not know the incubation time for salmonella in the human body.
 

bby31288

Active Member
Wow, I just checked mine. We have Peter Pan and Skippy. Well my Peter Pan is chunky and is from that lot...2111 on the lid. The whole jar is almost gone. I didn't even think to check because we usually buy Skippy. But after reading, I just figured what the heck I would check....I will promptly throw the rest out.
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
My peanut pan peanut butter was only about 6 months old at the most. I checked it and it had that number. I chucked it. I'm bummed 'cause it was the low carb and none of the other companies have low carb, at least not in my store.
 

dreamer

New Member
you could see if any stores have put any back on the shelves that does not have the affected caselot number on it?
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
dreamer, PP has voluntarily pulled all of the peanut butter off the shelves. I will probably be a few months before it reappears on the shelves.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Since this wouldn't have affected us, I didn't read this thread before. OK, I'm having a quiet moment!

I've got some info and some questions -

First, here is a link to more info on salmonella:
http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/

They say that the incubation period is 12 to 72 hours. This fits with what I remember.

This recall (according to what I found) says it's for jars bought since May 2006. That should be still edible unless it's been kept with a loose lid in a warm environment.

Peanut butter DOES go off with time - it depends on how warm it is where it's kept, as well as other things. I've had an unopened jar go off, so it's not just exposure to contaminants. How it goes off - the oils in it go rancid. They taste bitter and are more solid in texture, like axle grease. I suspect, from a chemistry point of view (husband, correct me if I'm wrong, this is your field) that this involves chemical changes in the long chain of carbon atoms that makes up the oils. Any doubly bonds are saturating, possibly combining with oxygen or other groups from within the peanut butter and when this happens in organic chemistry it can totally change what sort of chemical it is, from an acid to an alcohol to an oil to... anyway, the consistency gets stiffer, the product tastes awful and you feel nauseated (maybe just from the taste). I've never got sick from tasting (and throwing out) rancid peanut butter, but it's put me off it for a long time.

ANY peanut butter will go off. For years we used to buy natural peanut butter, ground fresh while you wait. Nothing in it but peanuts. It would begin to goo off in a matter of weeks sometimes. Then I began making it myself, in the blender. Then the kids began to demand peanut butter in bulk so I searched the shelves for some good stuff with no additives. Then they stopped eating it - hence my discovery of what rancid peanut butter tastes like (by the way, the chemical changes begin long before it's unpalatable - you can taste the early changes and it's a sign to either use it up fast, or give up and throw it out now).
One point - if the nuts are old, the freshly made peanut butter will also taste 'old'. You get the best results with fresh nuts. The oils will degrade in the nut, too.

I was thinking that if you cook with the peanut butter, melting it out completely and raising the temperature high enough to kill the salmonella, it should be fine. There are some biscuit recipes, for example. Or satay sauce. You would need to heat the peanut butter thoroughly first before you add it to the recipe. I think somewhere I've got a recipe for roast chicken that's been smeared with peanut butter. husband would divorce me if I cooked it for him. But I just checked the FDA's website - they do not recommend you cook with it. I suspect that is because it's difficult to be sure you have heated it hot enough or for long enough. SO - it's probably best to just chuck it out, because it's not expensive stuff and it's a lot cheaper to buy a new jar than to end up with 7 days of diarrhoea.

And for those who are now wary of peanut butter - try making your own cashew butter. It's different, very tasty, great for kids (who don't have a nut allergy).

One last question - is this a recall where you get refunded, or is it just a warning to throw it out? I couldn't find any reference to "return it to your nearest retailer for a refund".

Marg
 

dreamer

New Member
I love watching A. Brown on Foodnetwork make nut butters. In k-garten my kids made peanut butter in school. We have tried it at home, too, and we have really liked it. :)
 
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