FDA Warns Consumers Not to Eat Peanut Butter Products

Agency advises against everything but jars of peanut butter as salmonella probe widens; more companies issue recall notices for products; toll at 470 sickened, 6 dead, in 43 states and Canada

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

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SUNDAY, Jan. 18 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to eat peanut butter products containing peanut butter or peanut butter paste, as the recall of products widened Sunday while the salmonella outbreak probe continued.

The U.S. health warning, issued Saturday, focused on products made with peanut butter, like crackers, not jars of peanut butter on store shelves, the agency said.

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"We are urging people not to eat products that have peanut butter until we have better information, and they can make an informed choice," Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said at a Saturday teleconference, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The official toll from the outbreak across 43 states and Canada now stands at 470 people sickened, with six deaths that have been linked.

Meanwhile, cereal giant Kellogg recalled 16 products containing peanut butter late Friday. The recall involved 33,000 cases of cookies and 7 million cases of crackers on grocery shelves, according to the Journal-Constitution.

Kellogg's recall included Keebler cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers and Keebler and Famous Amos peanut butter cookies.

By Sunday, other companies had joined the recall list, according to the Associated Press.

McKee Foods Corp. of Collegedale, Tenn., recalled Little Debbie Peanut Butter Toasty and Peanut Butter Cheese Sandwich Crackers, which the company said were manufactured by Kellogg.

Hy-Vee Inc., which distributes in several states, recalled various bakery products containing peanut butter. And Perry's Ice Cream announced a voluntary recall of select ice cream products containing peanut butter.

The recalls followed a request late last week from the FDA for salmonella testing by food companies that may have bought peanut butter or peanut paste from a Georgia facility owned by the Peanut Corp. of America.

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