Answers to questions about the peanut butter recall
— -- Peanut butter is a popular ingredient in snacks. As news unfolds about the nationwide outbreak of salmonella tied to peanut butter and peanut paste, USA TODAY food safety reporter answers questions about how this crisis affects consumers.
Q: What is salmonella?
A: It's a bacteria that is frequently found in birds and reptiles. In humans, it can cause severe diarrhea and bloody stools. While not everyone who is exposed will get sick, for those who do, it is a painful and unpleasant experience for four to seven days. For children and the elderly, as well as people with impaired immune systems, it can be deadly.
Q: How is this outbreak being spread?
A: By consumption of peanut butter and peanut paste contaminated with a specific strain of bacteria called salmonella typhimurium. The Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) made these products in its Blakely, Ga., plant and sold them to institutions such as schools, hospitals and nursing homes, and to food manufacturers across the country.
Q: What is peanut paste?
A: It's a concentrated mixture of ground peanuts used in cooking and baking. Companies that make cookies, snacks, candy and other treats bought it in bulk from PCA.
Q: Should we stay away from all peanut butter for now?
A: Jars of peanut butter that are sold in supermarkets and grocery stores are fine. The only company that PCA sold its peanut butter to was King Nut, which sold only in bulk — in large tubs — to institutions.
Q: But is peanut paste dangerous?
A: That's the big question. Even though PCA is a small supplier of peanut paste, it shipped to companies nationwide. The Food and Drug Administration says it has visited more than 1,000 firms that purchased products from PCA. The agency lists 396 recalled products, and that list gets longer every day.
Q: What kinds of companies did PCA sell to?
A: Companies — including snack and cereal giant Kellogg — that make foods, especially snacks, that contain peanuts, including granola and energy bars, crackers, cookies, ice cream, prepackaged celery and apples with peanut butter, chicken with peanut sauce and many kinds of candy.
