• Austin Toasty Peanut Butter Crackers Recall

Austin Toasty Peanut Butter Crackers Recall

Jan 15, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – The Kellogg Company yesterday pulled its peanut butter crackers from store shelves as public health officials investigate whether any peanut butter–containing food products are associated with a national Salmonella outbreak that now includes 448 cases in 43 states and may have played a role in five deaths. Investigators have determined that the source of the outbreak strain, Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium, might be bulk peanut butter from the Peanut Corporation of America's (PCA) plant in Blakely, Ga. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in an update on the outbreak that investigators are continuing their investigation into exposures to peanut butter and products that contain peanut butter. 'Public health officials will advise the public if more products are identified as being associated with the outbreak,' the agency said. Sebastian Cianci, spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told CIDRAP News today that the agency's investigators have been at the PCA facility, have taken samples for testing at the FDA's lab, and are awaiting the results. He said that FDA investigators have not definitively linked the outbreak to PCA, and so far an open 5-lb container of peanut butter in Minnesota is the only contaminated product that has been found. 'Right now we're still trying to nail down what the products are.