I havent seen a post about this and I'm sure a lot of you have heard about it by now but I just wanted to post a couple of links about the recent salmonella outbreak in various peanut butter products for those who maybe don't have a lot of info about it. I was shocked and horrified to see that a few of my favorite organic brands were recently added to the product recall! (certain Luna Bars and LaraBars) And of course I've eaten a few of the specific recalled products in the last few days. So I'm calling their hotlines tomorrow to see what I'm supposed to do because the damage is already done and the wrappers are long gone.
The outbreak (for now) seems to be contained to bars, cookies, cakes, and candy products and not jarred peanut butter. I'm going to post a link to the current full list of recalled brands and products, but check back every day since more may be listed. And also, most of these recalled brands are "voluntary recalls" which means it's more of a precaution than anything else. Just go through your cabinets check out all your foods to see if you have any of the recalled products. And even if you have peanut butter products that arent included in the recall, it still may be a good idea to double-check for information on the company's website. I've already emailed 5 different companies that make the food containing PB that I have in my house because they don't have information about the recall on their website and I want to make sure that the food I do have (with the exception of my Luna and Larabars) are safe. It's just really sad and frightening when something as innocent as packaged granola bars or even something like spinach can make so many people sick, or worse. What is going on with quality control in this country?? I'm especially disappointed in the organic brands. Consumers spend the extra money to try to avoid **** like this because these organic companies are supposed to have such high standards in choosing where their ingredients come from and how it's processed.
FDA: http://www.fda.gov
Peanut Corp.: http://www.peanutcorp.com