Peanut product recalls spread fast

— -- The economic wallop from a salmonella outbreak in peanut products continues to spread with more than 800 recalls and more expected this week.

The recall, one of the largest ever, started with bulk peanut butter, spread to crackers and cookies and has engulfed products as diverse as kettle corn, pad Thai and trail mix.

"All it takes is a little company, and it has a huge ripple effect," he says.

The Department of Justice on Friday joined in the investigation of Peanut Corp. of America, raising the possibility of criminal charges. PCA's Blakely, Ga., plant has been linked to a salmonella outbreak that's sickened 529 and may have contributed to eight deaths. For every reported illness, dozens go unreported.

The GMA says PCA supplied less than 1% of peanut products sold in the U.S. Still, the FDA says the company has more than 300 customers, many of whom used PCA's products as an ingredient. "A pound of their product ends up in 100 pounds of other products," says John Sniffen of Orchard Valley Harvest, which last week recalled peanuts packed for Safeway.

PCA expanded its recall last week to two years' worth of production and added peanuts, peanut meal and other products to the peanut butter and paste recall.

The FDA said Friday that some boutique peanut butters, made from peanuts ground in stores, may be affected because of the wider recall.

The recall's breadth has the $1 billion peanut farming industry on edge, says Emory Murphy, assistant executive director of the Georgia Peanut Commission. "This could affect demand," he says.