Peanut popularity complicates salmonella probe

This has been a big topic in the news. Does anyone realize or have an idea how much peanut butter they consume in one year? I have peanut butter on a daily basis whether that is a good thing or not I don’t know. All this publicity has put the crunch in my daily peanut butter. There is millions of dollars going into this investigation and the recalling of products containing peanut butter. Then one also has to take into account the health care dollars being spent on treating the salmonella. The emotional issues families have to deal with of those who have died from salmonella.
Not only has salmonella been found in food for humans but also in animal food. We now also have to monitor our pet’s food.
I read in this article that there were issues addressed with this plant in Georgia back in June. So my question is why was all that peanut butter released to these companies that then distributed it in their products. Did they truly think they would not get caught? They obviously knew it was a problem as they said they addressed it. This has brought on a federal investigation in 43 states. “The bacteria have sickened at least 486 people, killing six, and have been linked to products manufactured by the Peanut Corporation of America in its Blakely, Georgia, plant.”
Did everyone throw away all their snacks containing peanut butter? Peanut butter in the jar supposedly is okay.
What kind of repercussions should this factory in Georgia face? How can the can the American public gain their trust once again?

I heard about this and I think it is a pretty scary issue that something like this was allowed to get out into the public. Something like 400 people have gotten sick from salmonella probably from this outbreak and that is a pretty high number. This issues at first didn’t bother me personally since I don’t really eat too much peanut butter, but then I started thinking about how I had a peanut butter cup the other day and some peanut butter ice cream a few days earlier, so it started making me feel ill. It seems unreal that there are all these stories of bad food making people sick in such a supposedly “advanced” age. I found a list of products that have been recalled, if anyone was interested: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm

When I was first told about the peanut butter issue was over this past weekend when my boyfriend was in town. I was paying attention to what he said and I thought my roommate had heard him too. Sadly enough she wasn’t paying attention and continued to eat her peanut butter daily like it was going out of style. Finally I mentioned something to her about it and she was completely clueless. At first she thought I was just joking around with her but then she began to freak out. Hopefully if it had anything harmless in it, it would’ve been pulled from the shelf but you can never be too safe. It’s definitely kind of scary to think about if you were to eat it how bad it could be for you. Hopefully they’ll be able to figure everything out about it and get it back to normal for all the peanut butter lovers out there.

While I support the use of tasteful usernames, you need to let me know who you are so I can give you credit for your work. My guess is that you are the student who mentioned growing up in the Amish culture, but I've learned not to assume anything in the online environment.

This outbreak of salmonella is pretty bad and has affected way too many people, but as someone who doesnt eat the off products that have gotten banned, I'm not too worried. Nothing can stop me from eating Reeses Cups. And I don't think how you said they "let" it get out into the city, I think it's more like they didn't even know it would get out.

I was very dissappointed that this even got to become an issue. The company has found salmonella in the past itself, but after sending samples to outside labs and those coming back clean, continued to operate as though nothing had happened. Not once but many times according to the news. My family uses peanut butter on a regular basis, both in cooking and on sandwiches etc. Thankfully we don't eat many prepared products.

Also, this plant has been cited in past for other problems. Excessive static dust, mildew, etc.

Up-to-date from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/30/georgia.peanuts/index.html?iref=newssearch

Also, if you have pets who eat pet treats that have peanut butter in them, use caution.

Pet Smart recalls products

I also don’t know why they continued to put the peanut butter in their products when they obviously did not address the issue. I had also heard about this a lot. My mom set all of the food containing peanut butter aside just to be safe but how do we know what peanut butter is safe and which is not! I love peanut buttery things and it is sad that we cant even count on food manufacturers to be honest. I am just so shocked that six people died from this problem! I wonder if there were other issues involved with those people. Even if there were over 400 people have been affected by this and that’s crazy!