Salmonella outbreak, rare in peanut butter, stuns health officials

[Mamazen]

Salmonella outbreak, rare in peanut butter, stuns health officials


Updated 2/16/2007 12:13 PM ET

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...t-butter_x.htm

The source of a dangerous salmonella outbreak took six months to track down in part because the culprit — peanut butter — took health officials by surprise.

The outbreak has sickened at least 290 people in 39 states since August. It took until this week to identify the source because peanut butter has only once before been linked to the life-threatening disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says.

ON DEADLINE: Information from the FDA, ConAgra

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Wednesday night that jars of Peter Pan and Wal-Mart's Great Value brand peanut butter beginning with the product code "2111" on the lid of the jar could be contaminated with the strain Salmonella Tennessee.

This variety of salmonella is so rare that the CDC normally sees only about 100 cases a year, says Robert Tauxe, chief of the CDC's Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch.

Symptoms include fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. In people with weakened immune systems and very young children, salmonella can invade the bloodstream and cause life-threatening infections.

The affected jars were from a single ConAgra Foods plant in Georgia, which FDA officials began investigating Wednesday. Great Value peanut butter made by other manufacturers is not affected, the FDA says. Consumers should discard any of this peanut butter purchased since May, the FDA says.

"Nature's been throwing us curve balls," says Tauxe. "We've had seven major product outbreaks in the last five months, and three have been in brand-new foods — botulism in carrot juice, E. coli in spinach, and now this."

When epidemiologists began getting reports of a growing number of cases in August, they took notice. But conducting normal case control studies — asking infected people what they had been eating — wasn't providing any clues, says Tauxe. Finally, people in the most-affected states began taking extensive, 300-question surveys.

That turned up peanut butter. "As our teams were talking to the people, they'd ask if they could donate that jar to the health department," says Tauxe. "By this Monday, there was an accumulation of half-eaten peanut butter jars in state health labs around the country." Those samples are being cultured now, he says.

There has been only one known outbreak of salmonella in peanut butter — in South Australia in 1996. Subsequent studies showed that because peanut butter is so thick and oily, heat pasteurization didn't kill the bacteria.

ConAgra has stopped production of peanut butter until the cause of contamination can be identified and eliminated. Consumers who have questions should contact the company at 866-344-6970.

For a full refund, consumers should send the product lid, their name and mailing address to ConAgra Foods, P.O. Box 3768, Omaha, NE 68103.

Those who have recently eaten the targeted peanut butter and become ill should contact their doctor immediately and report the illness to state or local health authorities, the FDA says.

[Mamazen]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/us...tml?ref=health

February 16, 2007
Peanut Butter Is Recalled as 300 Fall Ill
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OMAHA, Feb. 15 (AP) — ConAgra Foods told consumers on Wednesday to discard certain jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter after a salmonella outbreak sickened almost 300 people.

Lids of jars with product codes beginning 2111 can be returned to ConAgra for a refund, the company said. The salmonella outbreak, which federal health officials said had sickened 288 people in 39 states since August, was linked to tainted peanut butter from a factory in Sylvester, Ga.

How the salmonella entered the peanut butter remains under investigation, said Dr. Mike Lynch, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials at the centers said the outbreak was thought to be the first from peanut butter. The most cases were reported in Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia.

About 20 percent of the patients were hospitalized, and there were no deaths, Dr. Lynch said.

ConAgra officials said they were unsure why the C.D.C. had identified peanut butter as the source of the problem. A spokesman for the company, Chris Kircher, said that tests of the peanut butter and factory were negative but that it closed the plant to investigate.

The company has not said how much peanut butter is being recalled.

The Peter Pan brand is sold in 10 varieties, the ConAgra Web site says. Great Value peanut butter, which other companies also manufacture, is a Wal-Mart brand. The recall does not affect Great Value peanut butter made by other companies, the Food and Drug Administration said.

Other states reporting cases are Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

Salmonella infection is known each year to sicken 40,000 people in the United States, according to the disease centers. Salmonellosis, as the infection is known, kills about 600 people annually. The symptoms can include diarrhea, fever, dehydration, abdominal pain and ing.

[Jahness]

Greetings mamazen!

Something is seriously wrong with our food supply. We as a people
have to find a way to be in better control of the food we are eating.

All those who can had better start growing their own food. Those
who can't should start seriously looking into forming some community
gardens.

The continuous contamination of our food supply is literally killing us.

Much appreciation to you mamazen, for keeping us updated on this
very important topic.

Peace!