Super Eco

Photo credit: chongeileen, Flickr

As if you weren’t already avoiding peanut butter like the plague. Now, on top of nixing your favorite toast topper, you can also kiss a veritable pantry-ful of peanutty snacks goodbye, including Clif Bars, Austin cracker packs, and Famous Amos and Keebler cookies. The popular between-meal bites were among 16 more foods recalled today in the wake of a salmonella outbreak that has claimed the lives of at least six people and sickened some 470 others in 43 states.

Additional foods implicated in this latest recall include cakes, cereal, candy and ice cream—basically all the good stuff—most from large-scale, household-name food manufacturers. (Why can't something be recalled that hardly anyone likes, like brussels sprouts or lima beans?!) 

As of today, the FDA is asking 30 companies to hold or recall their peanut-laden products while the investigation continues, including:

• King Nut, distributor of peanut butter produced by PCA, has recalled all bulk packages.
• Kellogg’s is recalling 16 peanut butter snacks. 
• Hy-Vee supermarkets is recalling bakery products in 7 states.
• Perry’s Ice Cream Company is recalling peanut butter ice cream products.

Yes, you’ll need to gut the cupboards again—and don’t forget those office/school/nursing home vending machines, too—of practically everything containing peanut ingredients, if you haven’t already. (We reported on the first salmonella-related peanut butter recall just two days ago.) Double-check all peanut butter and peanut-containing foods against the FDA’s complete list. Check the list again soon; it’s only expected to get longer in the coming days.

In the meantime, the FDA is warning consumers to steer clear of commercially prepared products containing peanut butter or peanut paste, and peanut butter served at restaurants, schools, nursing homes and other institutions.

Organic soy butter anyone? Tahini? How about that almond butter? Lucky for peanut-butter heads like me, the list of safe peanut butter alternatives spreads on and on.