The United States Food and Drug Administration has recently expanded its previous recall on contaminated peanut butter that was manufactured by ConAgra in its Sylvester, Georgia food plant. The contaminated lots of peanut butter, consisting of both Peter Pan and Great Value brands, bear the prefix of 2111 on its lid and have been definitively show to contain salmonella. The previous recall went back to May of 2006, but the FDA now says consumers should be weary of any peanut butter bearing the 2111 product code as far back as October of 2004.
The FDA alert says, "Consumers who have purchased any of the products since October 2004 ...FDA's advice to consumers continues to be not to eat any Peter Pan peanut butter or any Great Value peanut butter beginning with the 2111 product code.""The most likely scenario is that the peanut butter became contaminated sometime during the production, between the roasting process and putting the product in a jar," said Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's Director of the Food Safety and Security Staff in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said March 1.
Symptoms of food-borne illness caused by salmonella include fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. It is rarely fatal, but can cause more serious health problems among the very old and very young.
Since its recall back in February of 2007, more than 400 cases of salmonella have been linked to the peanut butter outbreak according to the FDA. Hundreds, if not thousands, more claims are being investigated currently as they too are believed to have sought treatment for salmonella like symptoms after consuming the affected peanut butter. Many peanut butter lawsuits have already been filed on behalf of those injured from its ingestion.