Health Law

FDA Announces Skippy Peanut butter Recall - Salmonella

By Marler Clark

The FDA announced yesterday that Unilever United States, Inc. today  was conducting "a limited recall of Skippy® Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter Spread and Skippy® Reduced Fat Super Chunk Peanut Butter Spread."

The product was recalled over concerns that it might be contaminated with Salmonella.  The FDA states that Salmonella:

can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis.

The peaunt butter was sent to retail stores in these states:  Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Here are the product specifics.

• The product is packaged in 16.3 oz plastic jars.
• UPCs: 048001006812 and 048001006782 (located on the side of the jar's label below the bar code.)
• Best-If-Used-By Dates: MAY1612LR1, MAY1712LR1, MAY1812LR1, MAY1912LR1, MAY2012LR1 and MAY2112LR1 (Stamped on the lid of the jar.)

To this point, there have been no illnesses associated with the product by the FDA.   The strain of Salmonella involved does not appear to have been publicly identified.   There have been two nationwide outbreaks of Salmonella linked to peanut butter in the past 4 years:  the 2007 ConAgra outbreak and the 2009 PCA outbreak.

Full post as published by Food Poison Blog on March 05, 2011 (boomark / email).