Posted: 03/07/07

Put down the peanut butter!
Infected peanut butter sickens people across the nation

Kristen Fiocco | staff writer
kfiocco@smcvt.edu

This year Valentine’s Day showed no love for peanut butter. On Feb. 14, ConAgra Foods initiated a recall for Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter as a result of a salmonella contamination dating back to fall, 2006.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, 60 people have been hospitalized and 370 people have been infected from 42 states, including Vermont.

Alert code "2111"!

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises consumers not to eat any Peter Pan peanut butter purchased since May 2006 or Great Value peanut butter with a product code beginning with the number “2111.” ConAgra encourages consumers to return the peanut butter to the store where it was purchased for a full refund.

St. Michael's Green Mountain dining room served Peter Pan peanut butter, but it was thrown away moments after the federal recall was announced. (Izabela Socha, photo)

“We are truly sorry for any harm that our peanut butter products may have caused,” wrote Gary Rodkin, chief executive of ConAgra Foods, in a Feb. 22 press release.

“Our immediate recall of 100 percent of our product was taken with the assumption that a link could be found between our peanut butter and the reported cases of salmonella.”

FDA laboratory personnel are analyzing samples collected from the manufacturing plant in Sylvester, GA. Rodkin added, “We are committed to taking all reasonable steps to remedy the situation.”

Web MD states that salmonella is a rod-shaped bacteria that lives within the digestive tract of humans, birds, reptiles, and certain mammals. The bacteria can be obtained by eating contaminated food and can spread to humans by handling waste from infected animals or consuming undercooked meat. Salmonellosis is the type of food poisoning caused by the bacteria.

According to the FDA, symptoms include diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. In addition, the illness can last from four to seven days and shows symptoms 12 to 72 hours after consumption of the bacteria. For those with poor underlying health and children, it could become life-threatening. Salmonella can also invade the bloodstream and cause deadly infections.

ConAgra apologizes

Last fall as more cases were appearing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed a questionnaire for infected consumers. In Dec. 2006, a correlation was drawn between peanut butter and the illness and on Feb. 13, the CDC notified ConAgra foods that the salmonellosis outbreak may have been caused by their products. The next day the company initiated a voluntary recall of their peanut butter.

With at least eight months worth of contaminated food already in circulation, it seemed inevitable that people would fall ill. CNN reported on a couple from St. Joseph, Mo., who sued ConAgra.

Susanna and Brian Cox’s two children required urgent medical treatment after eating Great Value Peanut Butter. Their attorney predicted that more would follow, and he was right.

William Marler, a Seattle, Wash. based attorney, said he was contacted by approximately 500 people during the week of Feb. 16. Marler’s firm handles cases of food-borne illnesses. So far, he has filed a lawsuit against ConAgra for Mark Avalone from Rochester, N.Y. whose two-year-old son Nicolas ate Peter Pan peanut butter and suffered from severe vomiting and diarrhea.

Some of the Great-Value Brand Peanut Butter sold at Wal-Mart, also had some cases of contamination. (Izabela Socha, photo)

In a recent ConAgra press release by , Chris Kircher, a spokesman for the company, offered his apologies for the damages.

“We take any consumer concern over the recall very seriously,” he wrote. “Consumer safety is our top priority.”

The CDC has reported that the local states affected are: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and Vermont. New York was hit the hardest, with a reported 41 cases so far. Vermont has had seven cases within eight months.

Mary Spayne, an epidemiologist with the state of Vermont, says this was a very widespread outbreak. ConAgra sells its products nationwide and exports to more than 60 other countries internationally.

“They are spearheading it,” she says. “All 50 states are involved.” The last outbreak she dealt with was E. coli found in spinach last year.

Spayne says the Department of Health has been very busy taking calls and handling concerned citizens. Vermont has 12 public health nurses working solely on salmonellosis instances. She says that some people come to the office looking for medical attention have been told to seek a doctor's assistance.

“We at the state are not physicians," she says. "We are involved in public health.”

Once the doctors confirmed a case of salmonellosis, they needed to report it to the state. Stool samples were brought to the Vermont Department of Health laboratory for testing.

The CDC is informed of every case in the country. Nationwide, all health departments are working closely with the CDC and Spayne says interviews are necessary for every report.

No more Peter Pan

Mike Nichols, the production manager in the Green Mountain dining room at St. Michael's College, says he took the recall very seriously. The dining hall was using Peter Pan brand peanut butter when the recall was announced.

“Literally minutes after we got the alert we pulled all the peanut butter and disposed of it,” Nichols says. For two days there was no peanut butter in Alliot, but Nichols said no student has complained and the whole ordeal went fairly unnoticed. The dining services do not use peanuts in any of their food, besides peanut butter, due to allergy precautions.

Alliot will not use Peter Pan peanut butter again, Nichols says, and it has switched over to a brand made by Jif.

“It seems to be disappearing as fast as or faster than the old stuff,” he says. The new peanut butter has less oil than Peter Pan, and Nichols says he thinks it tastes better. He said he likes it so much that even if Peter Pan survives the epidemic, he still will not buy from the company anymore.

Green Mountain dining room switched to a peanut butter made by Jif. (Izabela Socha, photo)

“You may never see the name Peter Pan anymore after this,” he says. Nichols says outbreaks like these can ruin a business. The company lost a great deal of money with the cost of recalls and wasted production. Alliot disposed of about 800 ounces of the contaminated peanut butter, but said that it was not too expensive. One case of peanut butter costs around $25.

During Presidents Day break, first-year Kathleen Kreiner ate some Great Value peanut butter that was produced in the Sylvester, Ga. plant. She found out hours after she licked her finger clean, that her jar had the product code “2111.” However, Kreiner did not get sick, and was not fazed at all by the scare.

“We were like, ‘Oh my God! We ate the bad peanut butter!’” Kreiner said. “But five minutes later we were like, ‘Okay, whatever.’” She did not bother to mail in the jar for a refund and finished eating the remaining peanut butter because she said she did not see a risk.

The CDC does not recommend that people follow Kreiner’s example. They advise that even if consumers eat a little of the contaminated product and do not get sick, to still discard the rest of the snack.