FDA Recommends Consumers Avoid Products Containing Peanut Butter

Salmonella Update

With many new recalls of foods containing peanut butter or peanut paste, the Food and Drug Administration is now recommending that consumers avoid all commercially prepared foods made with peanut butter or eating peanut butter served in institutional settings.

Current recalls, listed on the FDA website, include a variety of cookies, candies, sandwich crackers, ice cream, and frozen pastry with many different labels.

The FDA says,

Because identification of products subject to recall is continuing, the FDA urges consumers to postpone eating commercially-prepared or manufactured peanut butter-containing products and institutionally-served peanut butter until further information becomes available about which products may be affected. Efforts to specifically identify those products are ongoing.

So far, no national brands of retail peanut butter have been found to contain Salmonella Typhimurium, but the bacteria has been traced to the Peanut Corporation of America which produces large quantities and peanut butter and peanut paste for commercial bakeries and food manufacturers.  Peanut Corporation of America also sells large tubs of peanut butter for nursing homes, schools, and other institutions.

The FDA has answers to questions about the Salmonella outbreak and its relationship to peanut butter for consumers and the public.

Cancer patients, particularly those with lowered immune response, may be particularly at risk from Salmonella.