• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Health officials say throw out salmonella-linked peanut butter

Infection Control Weekly Monitor, January 14, 2009

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Infection Control Weekly Monitor!

Hospitals and nursing homes are among those institutions being urged to throw out containers of a particular brand of peanut butter that Minnesota health officials have linked to a salmonella outbreak in 43 states.

The recalled peanut butter, distributed by King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio, was supplied only through food service providers and not sold directly to consumers, reported the Associated Press (AP). The outbreak has sickened more than 400 people and the CDC has said it may have contributed to three deaths.
 
Minnesota health officials announced January 12 they had found a match between samples from a King Nut container of peanut butter and the strains of salmonella bacteria tied to the illnesses. King Nut challenged the finding and company officials said it could not be the source of the nationwide outbreak since it distributes its product only in seven states. A Minnesota Department of Agriculture official, Heidi Kassenborg, urged all institutions, including hospitals, to throw away the peanut butter.

Minnesota officials announced last week they had found salmonella bacteria in a five-pound container of King Nut peanut butter at a nursing facility in the state and then tested the bacteria to see if it was a genetic match with the strain that has sickened people around the country.

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Infection Control Weekly Monitor!

• Comment
• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive

Comments