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.

Whole Foods wfmi, for one, has removed more than 80 products from its stores, its website says. Anecdotal evidence indicates that sales of all peanut-related products, even unaffected peanut butters, are slipping, says Robert Brackett, senior vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a food industry trade group.

"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.

Major peanut butter brands are not affected. Producers such as Unilever UN, maker of Skippy, and ConAgra Foods cag, which sells Peter Pan, have told consumers as much on their websites.

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.

Brackett fears consumers will tire of checking recall lists and begin shunning anything with peanuts. Past food scares have shown that to be true.

The FDA says PCA detected salmonella in its products and that in 2007 and 2008, the company shipped products that had tested positive for salmonella after a re-test came up negative.