K ids love it sandwiched with jam. It tastes great swirled in ice cream or candy.
One of our favorite foods has been contaminated with salmonella and recalled once again. The peanut butter recall that began on Sept. 24 and affected hundreds of peanut butter products and other nut spreads now includes packages of raw and roasted shelled and in-shell peanuts that may be contaminated with salmonella.
The 240 different products originally recalled were sold at major grocery chains including Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Target and Stop & Shop. The contamination is linked to Sunland Inc., a New Mexico peanut supplier.
The leading brands of peanut butter including Skippy, Jif and Peter Pan -- are not manufactured by Sunland, and not affected by the recall.
According to an Oct. 16 NBC news report, the salmonella outbreak was expanded with the voluntary recall of thousands of bags of whole peanuts by Hines Nut Co. The Dallas-based company recalled bags of salted jumbo Virginia in-shell peanuts on Oct. 15 for possible contamination with salmonella, also processed by Sunland Inc.
Sunland raw and roasted peanuts are available to retail customers and distributed primarily under the company's own label. They were mostly distributed to produce houses and nationally to numerous large supermarket, grocery and retail chains.
Nearly 2 million pounds of peanuts were involved in the recent recall, with the bags sold nationally in supermarkets such as Wal-mart and Dollar General stores.
According to officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the salted jumbo peanuts were distributed from April 12 to Oct. 12. There are no reported illnesses from the Hines products.
Consumers who have purchased the peanuts are urged not to eat them, but to return them to the place of purchase.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports at least 35 people in 19 states have been sickened in the salmonella outbreak traced to the Sunland peanut products. Nearly two thirds of those affected were children younger than 10. No deaths have been reported.
Salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 hours to 72 hours after infection. It is most dangerous to children, the elderly and others with weak immune systems.
Consumers can contact Sunland, Inc. directly at 1-866-837-1018 for information on the recall. The most current information available from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is posted on their website at www.fda.gov.
Grace Marks, MPH, CPC is a health educator, certified performance coach, workplace trainer, and holistic stress management instructor with "Native Empowerment: Solutions for Health and Harmony." If you have any questions or comments, please direct them to Grace@NativeEmpowerment.com or 928-774-1284.