The large-scale recall for Trader Joe's-brand Valencia peanut butter, announced Saturday, now applies to nut butter sold under 14 different brand names at stores around the country, including almond butter and peanut butter with flaxseed sold under Target's in-store brand Archer Farms.
So far, only the Trader Joe's peanut butter has been linked to salmonella illnesses. But butters from all the named brands were made on the same line of a factory owned by Portales, N.M.-based nut butter maker Sunland Inc., so the company opted to pull all the possibly affected products from shelves. (You can find a full list of the products being recalled at the bottom of this article.)
Sunland spokeswoman Katalin Coburn described the move as "a huge and possibly overkill step" in a conversation with The Huffington Post, but she also noted that the salmonella strain found in the Trader Joe's peanut butter had been identified as "particularly cunning" and hard to detect by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Coburn pointed to the fact that Sunland's food safety testing procedures had failed to detect any salmonella before it sickened at least 29 people in 18 states as evidence of the elusiveness of the strain. "None of the peanut butter that has been shipped has been tested positive, which makes it so darn frustrating," she said.
Sunland has not yet been able to identify the source of the salmonella contamination, Coburn said, but added that the company is working closely with the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration to do so. Neither Trader Joe's nor Target responded to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
Michael Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety, said that peanut butter has traditionally been an extremely unlikely vector for salmonella outbreaks, noting that only four such outbreaks (including the one in process) have been linked to the spread in history. Peanuts, he explained, are roasted before being ground into butter, virtually guaranteeing that any salmonella that might have been picked up on the farm is killed.
"If you roast properly, then that should take care of the problem of the nuts being contaminated by the salmonella in the field," Doyle said.
That means any salmonella that makes it into peanut butter is more likely the result of an inadequate cooking process or contamination after roasting, according to Doyle. He said that it was impossible, without visiting the Sunland plant, to say which might have led to the current recall.
Doyle added that peanut butter does make a good vessel for salmonella if it is introduced at some stage of manufacture. Although there's not enough water in peanut butter to allow salmonella to grow, individual bacteria can live for months, or even years, trapped in the peanut oil. Then, once an unwitting victim eats the salmonella-infected spread, the salmonella can grow in the small intestine, potentially causing disease.
"Very small numbers of salmonella can produce illness in these fatty products," Doyle said.
In other words, although the Trader Joe's peanut butter is the only one linked to any illness, it's probably wise to discard any product on the list of recalled nut butters. It's not yet clear how much peanut butter is affected by the recall or how much the recall will ultimately cost Sunland.
UPDATE 9/25/12 1:15 pm: Tiffany Hsu at the LA Times noted that the items affected by the peanut butter recall were "available online and at large supermarket chains under brands such as Sprouts, Harry & David and Safeway’s Open Nature." And an AP report on the peanut butter recall mentioned that the number of items affected was 76.
UPDATE 9/25/12 2:45 pm: Food Safety News reports that another salmonella illness has been linked to this peanut butter recall, bringing the total up from 29 to 30.
UPDATE 9/27/12 1:30 pm: The peanut butter recall has come to Whole Foods. The grocery chain issued a recall notice for three types of peanut butter cookies sold in its stores containing Sunland peanut butter that could be contaminated with salmonella, according to Food Safety News.
UPDATE 10/3/12 3:00 pm: More and more products continue to be added to the list of foods affected by the peanut butter recall. The Christian Science Monitor reports that some possibly-tainted peanut butter was used in foodstuffs under the Newman's Own and Chattanooga Bakery brands. All in all, the total number of products implicated in the peanut butter recall now stands at 101.
The recall applies to nut butters with the following names, jar sizes and UPC numbers and with sell-by dates between May 1, 2013, and Sept. 24, 2013. Customers who've already purchased such products should throw them away and contact Sunland's 24/7 recall hotline at 1-866-837-1018:
Archer Farms Creamy Almond Butter, 16 oz
8523902334Archer Farms Peanut Butter with Flax Seeds, 16 oz
8523902333Earth Balance Natural Almond Butter and Flaxseed, 16 oz
3377610090Fresh & Easy Crunchy Almond Butter, 16 oz
051379022518Fresh & Easy Organic Creamy Peanut Butter with Sea Salt, 16 oz
20003357Fresh & Easy Creamy Peanut Butter, 18 oz
20003364Fresh & Easy Organic Crunchy Peanut Butter with Sea Salt, 16 oz
20003388Fresh & Easy Creamy Peanut Butter, 40 oz
051379026431Fresh & Easy Creamy Almond Butter, 16 oz
20003395Fresh & Easy Organic Creamy Peanut Butter with Sea Salt, 16 oz
20003357Fresh & Easy Crunchy Peanut Butter, 18 oz
20003371Heinen's All Natural Peanut Butter, Creamy, 16 oz
2060140048Heinen's All Natural Peanut Butter, Crunchy, 16 oz
2060140047Heinen's Organic Peanut Butter, Creamy, 16 oz
2060140046Heinen's Organic Peanut Butter, Crunchy, 16 oz
2060140045Joseph's Salt-Free No Sugar Added New Crunchy Valencia Peanut Butter, 18 oz
3307915073Joseph's Salt-Free No Sugar Added New Creamy Valencia Peanut Butter, 18 oz
3307915072Natural Value Creamy Peanut Butter/Salt, 15 lb
910053Natural Value Crunchy Peanut Butter/Salt, 15 lb
910060Naturally More Organic Peanut Butter, 16 oz
5859500020Naturally More Almond Butter, 16 oz
5859500019Naturally More Peanut Butter Crunchy, 16 oz
5859500033Naturally More Peanut Butter, Gluten Free Vegan, 26 oz
5859500055Naturally More Peanut Butter, Gluten Free Vegan, 16 oz
5859500050Open Nature Crunchy Peanut Butter, 16 oz
7989311202Open Nature Old Fashioned Creamy Peanut Butter, 16 oz
7989311201Peanut Power Butter, Original Formula, 16 oz
5855200003Peanut Power Butter, Original Formula, 4 lb
5855200007Serious Food, Silly Prices, Almond Butter Creamy, 12 oz
4792100442Serious Food, Silly Prices, Organic No-Stir Peanut Butter, Crunchy, 16 oz
4792100439Serious Food, Silly Prices, Organic No-Stir Peanut Butter, Creamy, 16 oz
4792100438Serious Food, Silly Prices, Organic Peanut Butter, Creamy, 16 oz
4792100436Serious Food, Silly Prices, No-Stir Peanut Butter, Crunchy, 16 oz
4792100435Serious Food, Silly Prices, No-Stir Peanut Butter, Creamy, 16 oz
4792100434Serious Food, Silly Prices, Peanut Butter, Creamy, 16 oz
4792100432Snaclite Power PB, 16 oz
8506000004Sprout's Farmers Market Creamy Peanut Butter, No Salt, 16 oz
7487500334Sprout's Farmers Market Crunchy Peanut Butter, No Salt, 16 oz
7487500335Sprout's Creamy Peanut Butter, 16 oz
7487500336Sprout's Crunchy Peanut Butter, 16 oz
7487500337Sprout's Creamy Almond Butter, 16 oz
7487500433Sprout's Crunchy Almond Butter, 16 oz
7487500434Sprout's Creamy Peanut Butter, 16 oz
7487500431Sunland Natural Peanut Butter Crunchy Valencia No Stir, 16 oz
4868787906Sunland Natural Peanut Butter Creamy Valencia No Stir, 16 oz
4868786906Sunland Natural Peanut Butter Creamy Salt Free Valencia, 16 oz
4868722906Sunland Creamy Peanut Butter with Sea Salt, 40 oz
4868709915Sunland Creamy Peanut Butter, 12 oz
4868726910Sunland Valencia Peanut Butter, 36 oz
4868785920Sunland Dark Roast Creamy Peanut Butter, 40 lb
062725Sunland Organic Creamy Peanut Butter, 40 lb
4868730725Sunland Pecan Deluxe Creamy Peanut Butter, 40 lb
029725Sunland Pecan Deluxe Crunchy Peanut Butter, 40 lb
028725Sunland Creamy Dark Roast Peanut Butter, 500 lb
26570Sunland Creamy Peanut Butter, 18 oz
4868726909Sunland Natural Creamy Peanut Butter, 18 oz
4868767909Sunland Valencia Peanut Sauce, 36 oz
4868785920Sunland Creamy Peanut Butter, 40 lb
22725Sunland Creamy Peanut Butter, 5 lb
22704Sunland Organic Creamy Peanut Butter, 40 lb
4868722715Sunland Crunchy Peanut Butter, 15 lb
4868721722Sunland Natural Creamy Peanut Butter, 5 lb
48687009704Sunland Creamy Natural Stabilizer Peanut Butter, 50 lb
4868790301Sunland Crunchy Natural Stabilized Peanut Butter, 40 lb
87725Sunland Creamy Peanut Butter, 35 lb
4868786724Sunland Creamy No Stir Peanut Butter, 5 lb
4868786704Sunland Extra Stabilized Organic Creamy Peanut Butter, 50 lb
4868784301Sunland Crunchy Peanut Butter, 40 lb
21705Crunchy Sugar Butter, 5 lb
25704Creamy Sugar Butter, 5 lb
26704Sunland Almond Butter, 5 lb
072704Dogsbutter RUC with Flax PB, 16 oz
003050Sunland Natural Almond Butter, Creamy Roasted Almond, 16 oz
4868772906Trader Joe's Valencia Peanut Butter with Roasted Flaxseeds, Crunchy and Salted, 16 oz
00989275Trader Joe's Valencia Creamy Salted Peanut Butter with Sea Salt, 16 oz
00971119Trader Joe's Almond Butter with Roasted Flaxseeds, Crunchy & Salted, 16 oz
00940795