On the Peanut Butter Recalls
For anyone who hasn’t heard, peanut butter is the latest regrettable star in ongoing food safety issues. The recall was issued January 13, but the initial statement claimed that, “None of the peanut butter being recalled is sold directly to consumers through retail stores.” This was industrial peanut butter, sold in containers ranging from 5 pounds to 50 pounds to hospitals, prisons, nursing homes, and the like. Even so, 470 people have gotten sick and six have died in this debacle.
And now, there’s a new problem.
Apparently, some of this peanut butter was sold to other processed food manufacturers. Unsurprisingly, some peanut butter snack crackers and packaged cookies testing positive for salmonella have been traced back to this same institutional peanut butter. In addition to the concerns for humans, there is also cause for concern if you have four-legged family members. PetSmart is pulling some peanut butter flavored dog biscuits from its stores. Store managers are pulling a variety of peanut butter products off the shelves until more information emerges, and consumers are now being counseled to avoid peanut butter based products of all kinds…except the standard jars of peanut butter, which are believed to be safe.
To my chagrin, Clif Bar has also instituted a voluntary recall on a variety of its peanut butter flavors. I checked my cupboards this morning. I had a bar included in the recall. Now I’m sitting here, typing this post, looking at this cheerfully-colored package of “Peanut Toffee Buzz,” and feeling frustrated, hoodwinked, and a wee little bit stupid.
I shouldn’t feel that way. I know the score, and I make it my business to know a lot about the risks and limitations of our food production system. However, one of the things that irks me is that the Unicyclist and I have exactly three pre-made food items in the house right now: frozen Indian naan bread, a box of crackers, and a handful of Clif Bars. Despite our dedication to fresh, local food and our minimal consumption of items that have been through the industrial food system, we wound up with a contaminated product.
I understand that eating local, fresh produce doesn’t magically protect you from food-borne illnesses. (It just makes them easier to trace, simpler to stop the spread before epidemics rage.) I really do know that. I know that our spinach from the farm might turn up with E-coli one of these weeks, just like this Clif Bar can be diagnosed with salmonella.
But I’m still angry.
This is the first time that we’ve ever had a recalled product in the house. And just like that, my vision has been altered. I look at this small, rectangular package, and I no longer see a food item. I see a threat to my health, the health of my family and my Hippo. I think about opening the package and not opening it. I’m still staring at it. Part of me wants to take it back to the store.
Another part of me wants to shellac it, in its package, and mount it on the wall as a reminder, or a monument. I’m not sure what exactly it would be a monument to. Error? Fragility? Misplaced trust? Consumerism? The weak links in the food system?
Something failed here, no doubt. Nearly five hundred people’s health and possibly half a dozen lives are testament to that. I’m angry about that. Still, I suppose some things have also gone right. Information is being disseminated. Some companies are taking action before salmonella is confirmed in their particular products, at substantial financial loss. The cause of the outbreak will be investigated, and hopefully determined.
So why do I still feel hoodwinked?
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I vote for the Shellac.
I’m ticked too, because we (and that includes the dogs) love peanut butter. The dogs have almost polished off another box of Three Dog Bakery Peanut Butter Woofers treats. (They consume about 1 box a week). I have to wonder if those two days I came home to “spit up” could be linked to peanut butter treats that are contaminated. The thought of giving my dogs something they love that is actually a healthy dog treat may have made them sick really annoys me.
I am also annoyed that my two favorite types of Girl Scout cookies include peanut butter, and though I like to support the Girl Scouts, I may not order cookies this year out of fear of getting a food borne illness. What a bummer…
I hope the clear source or sources of the contaminant are found and that the products containing it can be determined and announced to the public quickly.
Have to dash off to work, but I left something for you on my blog - go on over to pick it up!
We should be mad, dagnabit…but like you mentioned in your post on lovely lunch ideas, and as you allude here, it’s best to keep it local, keep it whole… I’m taking this as a sobering but effective reminder. It’s a sick injustice that anyone should have to pay the price of Big Food with their very health - or life.
On a lighter note… keep up the great writing!
From what I read and heard on the news, it not paticulary dangerous to your pets about the tainted dogfood, as dogs rarely contract salmonella, but rather dangerous to those humans that handle the dog food. Equally dangerous is the curious child that decides to eat the dog food (totally been there).
I agree with what Jess said, “best to keep it local, keep it whole.”
Yup.
The risk is purportedly lower for our animals to contract a strain of salmonella that will be dangerous to them, but it does happen.
Cross-contamination of humans from contaminated dog food products, contaminated animal waste, and, indeed, the curious kid do all pose dangers as well.
On a side note, it took us an unfortunately long time to figure out why my little brother had wet bangs at odd times when he was about 5. Turns out he was having a rip-roaring game of pretend, where he was a puppy, complete with dutifully drinking out of our dog’s water dish. I’m not sure if he ate any of the food, but I sure hear ya, Allie. Yeesh.
I’m taking my chances with my natural peanut butter. It’s too yummy to live without. And I have a jar stashed from before all this started.
I ordered my Girl Scout cookies, peanut buter and all! Mom Klein sent me an article from Madison saying that the peanut butter in them was safe, but the Health Department here is telling everyone to stay away from all sources of peanut butter. Poo to that!
[...] Peanut Toffee Buzz bar pictured at the top of the page? The one I blogged about last week? The one from the recalled, potentially salmonella-encrusted [...]
I was similarly affected by the Clif recall and I am very, very angry at them. What happened to their supposed ‘food philosophy’ and organic ingredients? I trusted them to make a quality product (one that I was prepared to pay a premium for)… I feel betrayed and it’s the last time I am buying anything from them. Who knows where their other ‘organic ingredients’ come from.