MNN - Mother Nature Network

Last week I told you about the recall of Trader Joe’s Valencia Creamy Salted Peanut Butter because it was possibly tainted with Salmonella Bredeney. At that point, 29 people in 18 states had been reportedly affected. In the past week, the recall has been widened to include several more brands of peanut butter and other nut butters, products made with peanut butter, and some brands of tahini.

 

I was emailing back and forth about this recall with Sarah, one of the editors here at MNN, and she said she feels like every time a recall like this happens, “we all check the list and say, whew! my brand isn't on there. Then, five days later, you have to check again — and maybe your brand is on the list. When a place like Whole Foods is included, it makes me shrug and think, can I do anything more except make everything we eat?”

 

I share her frustration. When many of the peanut butters on the recall are organic, is it time for us all to be making our own peanut butter? Maybe, but then how do we know the peanuts we are using are safe? Grow them ourselves?

 

Peanuts don’t grow well in New Jersey, and peanut butter is too much of a staple in my household to go without, so I think I’m going to calm down just a little bit. I’ll be good about keeping up with recalls and alerting you when I think it’s a product my readers are likely to purchase.

 

Now on to the details of the recall.

 

Various versions of peanut butter, other nut butters and tahini have been recalled under the following brand names. They all seem to originate from a company called Sunland, Inc. Sunland has released a PDF that it is updating regularly as new products are added.

 

 

The PDF linked to above lists the UPC codes on the recalled containers and also advises that all recalled products have “Best-If-Used-By Dates between May 1, 2013 and September 24, 2013.”

Certain products made with peanut butter are also affected by the recall. The FDA says the following companies have informed their agency of products recalled.

 

 

So check your peanut butter, nut butters, and tahini to make sure they haven’t been included in the recall. If they have, return them to the store for a refund or just throw them away. And, if you or anyone you know have eaten from a product that has been recalled and starts to show symptoms of salmonellosis like diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection, give your doctor a call.