BFAD Director Leticia Barbara Gutierrez

The Philippine’s Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) is set to investigate if selected US peanut butter products that are being recalled by its US manufacturer due to salmonella concerns is available in the Philippine market.

BFAD Director Leticia Barbara Gutierrez told ABS-CBN News on Sunday that its Products Control Committee would discuss on Monday the availability of the peanut-butter products in the market.

She said that if the products which are the subject of a voluntary recall by US cereal-maker Kellogg Co. are in the Philippine market, they would be getting samples for testing.

She said however that the public should meanwhile avoid the products, if available, pending BFAD tests.

Kellogg Co. on Friday announced a US-wide voluntary recall of selected peanut butter products due to salmonella concerns.

"The actions we are taking today are in keeping with our more than 100-year commitment to providing consumers with safe, high-quality products," Kellogg Co. President and CEO David Mackay said in a statement at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Web site. "We apologize for this unfortunate situation."

Salmonella is an organism which can cause infections, fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. For more information on salmonella, visit the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website (http://www.cdc.gov/).

US authorities tell US consumers: Steer clear of peanut butter
The Kellogg Co. announcement comes after the US FDA announced “a very active and dynamic investigation into the source of the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak.”

US health authorities also told consumers on Saturday to avoid eating products that contain peanut butter until they can determine the scope of an outbreak of salmonella food poisoning that may have contributed to six deaths.

"We urge consumers to postpone eating any products that may contain peanut butter until additional information becomes available," Dr. Stephen Sundlof of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety said in a teleconference with reporters.

As of Friday night, 474 people had been reported infected by a salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter by public health authorities in 43 of the 50 US states, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Twenty-three percent of the known cases had resulted in hospitalizations and the infections may have contributed to six deaths, said Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the Centers' division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases.

The very young, elderly and immuno-compromised were the most severely affected, he said in the teleconference.

Peanut Corporation of America
The company at the center of the case, Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), said it had been informed by US FDA that some samples of its products had tested positive for a salmonella strain that may have originated in a Blakely, Georgia, peanut processing plant.

PCA, a peanut processing company and maker of peanut butter for bulk distribution to institutions, food service industries, and private label food companies, on Saturday announced an expanded recall of peanut butter produced in its Blakely, Georgia processing facility as well as the voluntary recall of peanut paste produced in the same plant because these products have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

The announcement was contained in a PCA press statement posted in the FDA Web site.

The company on January 13, 2009 had previously announced the recall of 21 lots of peanut butter produced on or after July 1, 2008, PCA said.

PCA on Saturday said its voluntary recall affect all peanut butter produced on or after August 8, 2008 and peanut paste produced on or after September 26, 2008 at the Georgia facility. PCA said the peanut butter being recalled is sold by PCA in bulk packaging in containers ranging in size from five to 1,700 pounds and the peanut paste is sold in sizes ranging from 35 pound containers to tanker containers, said PCA.

It said that none of the peanut butter or peanut paste being recalled is sold directly by PCA to consumers through retail stores.

"Today, the FDA informed PCA that new product samples in unopened containers tested positive for Salmonella," said Stewart Parnell, President of Peanut Corporation of America.

PCA said FDA has not yet confirmed the DNA fingerprints of these positive samples to match the strains causing the outbreaks of food borne illness in several states.

The US peanut-processing company said is immediately stopping all production at the Blakely, Georgia facility and notifying its customers to recall and retain all affected product produced during these dates at this plant.

Several US companies, as a precautionary measure, have also announced the recall of its products which they said contain inputs from PCA.

US FDA said in its Web site on Saturday that it "recommends that consumers avoid eating products that have been recalled and discard them."

Kellogg voluntary recall
Kellogg said that the following products produced on or after July 1, 2008 are possibly contaminated with salmonella. The US cereal maker said PCA is “one of Kellogg's peanut paste suppliers for these crackers” which are the subject of the voluntary recall.

The company urged consumers who have purchased the following items to ask for a refund or to destroy the following:

• Austin® Quality Foods Cheese Crackers with Peanut Butter - all sizes
• Austin® Quality Foods Cheese & Peanut ButterSandwich Crackers – all sizes
• Austin® Quality Foods Mega Stuffed Cheese Crackers with Peanut Butter – all sizes
• Austin® Quality Foods PB & J Cracker Sandwiches – all sizes
• Austin® Quality FoodsSuper Snack Pack Sandwich Crackers
• Austin® Quality Foods Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers – all sizes
• Austin® Quality Foods Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter – all sizes
• Austin® Quality Foods Reduced Fat Cheese & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers
• Austin® Quality Foods Reduced Fat Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers
• Austin® Quality FoodsCookie/Cracker Pack
• Austin® Quality FoodsVariety Pack
• Keebler® Cheese & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers – all sizes
• Keebler® Toast & PB'n J Flavored Sandwich Crackers – all sizes
• Keebler® Toast & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers – all sizes
• Famous Amos® Peanut Butter Cookies (2- and 3-ounce)
• Keebler® Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter Cookies (2.5-ounce)

Hy-Vee Inc. recalls bakery products with peanut butter
Hy-Vee Inc. announced January 17 the voluntarily recall the following products made in its bakery departments because they contain peanut butter that has the potential to be contaminated with salmonella:

Peanut Butter Cookies, Monster Cookies, Peanut Butter Reese's Pieces Cookies, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, Lunchbox Reese's Pieces Cookies, Lunchbox Peanut Butter Cookies, People Chow Party Mix and Assorted Truffle Fudge. All sell-by dates are included in this recall. The products are sold in various packaging and quantities and have a Hy-Vee price label attached.

All items should be destroyed or returned to Hy-Vee for a full refund, said HyVee in its press release posted in the US FDA Web site.

HyVee said its action was taken immediately after PCA, the company that supplies bulk peanut butter to Hy-Vee, issued a recall of the peanut butter ingredient used to make the Hy-Vee bakery products.

The items, Hy- Vee said are sold in all Hy-Vee stores in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota, have not been directly linked to the salmonella outbreak and there have been no reported cases of the illness.

Hy-Vee Bakery Manufacturing of Des Moines, Iowa, supplies stores with many of their baked goods.

Hy-Vee said PCA recalled a number of lots of the product this week after US health inspectors found salmonella contamination in an already-opened container of peanut butter at a nursing home in Minnesota. Hy-Vee said it had been shipped product from two of the lots. Production was suspended immediately and stores instructed to remove baked goods that contained peanut butter from store shelves, said Hy-Vee.

In addition, Hy-Vee said it sent samples of the peanut butter to an independent lab for testing.

Perry’s Ice Cream recall
Perry’s Ice Cream on January 17 also announced a voluntary recall of select ice cream products containing peanut butter because the products have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

Perry’s Ice Cream, in a press statement posted in US FDA Web site, said PCA is one of Perry’s peanut butter sauce suppliers.

Perry’s Ice Cream said it is recalling ice cream products containing peanut butter sauce, which have been recalled by PCA. It said that Perry’s Ice Cream has not received any consumer illness complaints about its products. It said the affected products for recall have been distributed in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.

Products affected by the Perry’s Ice Cream are as follows:

• Perry's Premium Peanut Butter Cup Craze Ice Cream 1/2 Pint
• Perry's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream 1.5 QT, 1.75 QT AND 3 GL
• Perry's Peanut Butter Chip Frozen Yogurt 1.5 QT, 1.75 QT and 3 GL
• Perry's Peanut Butter Sundae Crunch Ice Cream Bar Bulk 24 pack
• Perry's Premium Peanut Butter Fudge Ice Cream 1.5 QT and 1.75 QT
• Perry's Perfectly Churned Light Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream 1.5 QT and 1.75 QT
• Perry's Light Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream 1.75 QT
• Shurfine Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream 1.75 QT
• Wegmans Chocolate Nutty Cone Ice Cream 1.75 QT
• Wegmans Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream 1.75 QT and Pint
• Wegmans Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream 1.75 QT
• Wegmans Peanut Butter Sundae Ice Cream 1.75 QT
• Wegmans Peanut Butter Pretzel Ice Cream 1.75 QT
• Wegmans Peanut Butter Crunch Ice Cream Bar 6 pack
• Wegmans Peanut Butter Candy Sundae Cup Ice Cream 4 pack
• Wegmans Peanut Butter Sundae Cup Ice Cream 4 pack

King Nut recall
King Nut Companies, a US distributor of peanut butter manufactured for them by PCA, had announced last January 10 a recall of peanut butter distributed under the King Nut label.

King Nut, in a press statment posted in the US FDA Web site, said it recalled its peanut butter products as soon as it was informed that salmonella had been found in an open five-pound tub of King Nut peanut butter.

King Nut said it distributes peanut butter only through food service accounts and not directly to consumers. King Nut said it does not supply any of the ingredients for the peanut butter distributed under its label. All other King Nut products are safe and not included in this voluntary recall, it said.

With a report from Atom Araullo, ABS-CBN News and Reuters