Salmonella in Peanut Butter Linked to Processing Plant

Finding suggests contamination occurred before product reached consumers, FDA says.

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Thursday, March 1, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

THURSDAY, March1 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. health officials on Thursday confirmed finding salmonella in samples taken from the Georgia processing plant linked to contaminated Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, inspections of ConAgra's plant in Sylvester uncovered the same strain of salmonella found in jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter responsible for 370 cases of salmonella poisoning in 42 states.

"All we know is that we've got salmonella bacteria that we found in the environment in the facility that matched the same strain that we found in patients that the states found in jars of peanut butter," said Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's Director of the Food Safety and Security Staff in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

"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," Acheson added.

The way the bacteria entered the plant will probably never be known, Acheson said. "How it got into the environment we'll never know," he said. "It may have come in on somebody's feet; it's possible there was somebody in the plant who was sick and didn't know it. But that's pure speculation."

Although the specific lots of affected peanut butter were recalled, the FDA learned that ConAgra also sent bulk qualities of Peter Pan peanut butter to its plant in Humboldt, Tenn. The bulk peanut butter was used to make three brands of commercial peanut butter topping.

These included Sonic Brand Ready-To-Use Peanut Butter Topping in 6 lb., 10.5 oz. cans, and Carvel Peanut Butter Topping in 6 lb., 10 oz. containers. Both fast-food outlets used the topping until Feb. 16 when the topping was recalled. In addition, the contaminated peanut butter was also used in J. Hungerford Smith Peanut Butter Dessert Topping in 6 lb., 10 oz. cans, the FDA said.

According to the FDA, the topping was used in the following Sonic products: