Peanut Butter Salmonella Probe Expanding
In a fast-moving investigation of a deadly, ongoing peanut butter Salmonella outbreak, state and federal health investigators are finding more and more evidence pointing to a Georgia peanut processing plant as the source of the problem.
The plant in Blakely, Georgia, has been shut down by its owner, Peanut Corporation of America, as more studies are conducted. On Friday, the company expanded a product recall to include all peanut butter made at the facility since August 8 and all peanut paste made there since September 26.
A total of six deaths have been associated with the outbreak: Two in Minnesota, two in Virginia, one in Idaho and one in Catawba County, North Carolina.
Leading food safety lawyer Fred Pritzker of Minneapolis has initiated a Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the heirs of one of the victims, Shirley Mae Almer of Minnesota. The proceedings in Hennepin County District Court will be against Peanut Corporation of America and Ohio-based King Nut Companies, a distributor of peanut butter produced at the idled plant.
Pritzker, whose firm is one of the few in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness, was quoted on ABC news affiliate KSTP-TV in the Twin Cities as saying . "This is a much more ominous situation than for you to go to your cupboard and look to see peanut butter. Most people won't know if they ate it in this outbreak."
Mrs. Almer, 72, was fighting cancer and living in a long-term care faciliity in Brainerd, Minn., when she consumed a piece of toast layered with King Nut creamy peanut butter in December. She died Dec. 21. State health officials would later confirm that Salmonella Typhimurium contained in peanut butter at her nursing home was a genetic match to the outbreak strain that has sickened at least 453 people in 43 states.
The other Minnesotan whose death has been associated with the outbreak is Clifford Tousignant, 78, who also was living in Brainerd at a long-term care facility.
Investigation Update
Dr. Stephen Sundlof of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Center and Dr. Robert Tauxe of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have provided an update of the outbreak investigation. Here are highlights from their press conference and other details:
- The outbreak is still considered very active and the number of cases will increase.
- The investigation is complicated because potentially contaminated peanut paste made at the Georgia plant was sold to many food companies as ingredients for baked goods and other products -- so the range of products making people sick has not yet been identified.
- Officials believe it is safe to eat brand-name peanut butter bought at grocery stores. The contaminated peanut butter was sold to commercial food service accounts such as nursing homes, hospitals, school cafeterias and other institutions.
- State investigators in Georgia and Connecticut have isolated Salmonella bacteria in unopened tubs of peanut butter produced at the Blakely plant and are testing it to see if it matches the outbreak strain.
- Minnesota officials already have matched Salmonella from an open container of King Nut peanut butter to the outbreak strain.
- The virulence of the outbreak strain is typical -- serious but not more serious than normal.
- The Salmonella bacteria is lying dormant in the contaminated peanut butter and coming to life and multiplying once consumed.
- The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee has opened an inquiry and has requested inspection reports and other records from the plant in Georgia.
- Kellogg Company has announced a formal recall of Keebler and Austin brand snack crackers containing peanut butter as well as certain baked goods. The recall includes snack-size packs of Famous Amos peanut butter cookies and Keebler Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter cookies. The Georgia plant was one of Kellogg's suppliers of peanut paste.
