SALMONELLA PEANUT BUTTER CAUSES CANDY AND MOONPIE RECALLS

Here we go again. Now the recalls of products made with Sunland peanut butter are starting. No surprise. It is amazing how many things we eat contain peanuts or peanut butter. Remember all those food items that were recalled when we had Salmonella-contaminated peanuts from PCA in Georgia in 2008-2009?

Here are a couple of early starters. More will come.

Falcon Trading Company, Inc./SunRidge Farms of Royal Oaks, California, is recalling some of its Sunridge Candies of various kinds - Energy Nuggets, Peanut Butter Power Chews, and Treasure Trove Snack Mix.

Chattanooga Bakery, Inc., maker of MoonPie® and LookOut!™ branded snacks, has also announced a limited recall of its Peanut Butter Crunch products with “Best By” dates of 02/26/13, 03/25/13, and 04/29/13.

By the way, Sunland Inc. has also expanded its own product recall for the second time. It now not only includes Almond Butter and Peanut Butter, but also its Cashew Butter, Tahini and Roasted Blanched Peanut Products. This is sounding more and more like a factory (equipment?) contamination. But what it will mean is still more spinoff recalls like the ones above.

Stay tuned.

Oh, and once again - avoid all foods containing peanut or almond butter for a while, especially for your children. (I purposely passed on Trader Joe's Crunchy Bars with peanut butter yesterday, and chose the honey ones instead...).

To your good health,

TSF

PEANUT BUTTER RECALL EXPANDS

Like everyone else, I love to be right - yes, even when I predict bad news. Please don't take that to mean that I want more of the U.S. food supply to be unhealthy or people to become ill. But after following food recalls for years, you get a sense about these things.

So if you read my previous post, you will see that I expected an expansion of the ongoing Trader Joe's peanut butter recall - before any expansion was announced. And, yes, it has happened.

It turns out that the company that makes this product for TJ's is Sunland Inc., which, as I suspected, also make peanut - and almond - butter for other retailers. Now it has had to recall these as well. The recall covers multiple products manufactured between May 1, 2012 and September 24, 2012 because these may be contaminated with the Salmonella bacteria that are making people ill in many U.S. states. There is such a long list of the products, I suggest you check them at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recall site: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/.

You may want to tell your friends and relatives - especially those with young children, or, who are elderly (the population groups most vulnerable to Salmonella illness) about this recall. I did a mini-check yesterday of people who shop at Trader Joe's and buy the recalled peanut butter. It is amazing how many people had not heard of the recall and had not checked their supply.

You may also want to alert anyone you know living overseas at U.S. army bases and diplomatic missions who have access to, and buy U.S. manufactured products. I remember during several past recalls I found that such people may be totally isolated from the recall information alert system - yes, in spite of the internet.

To your good health,
TSF