NOTE: As of January 29, this information has been updated.
Last year we struggled with problem spinach, jalapenos and tainted baby formula. We've kicked off 2009 with peanut butter and salmonella making Americans sick, even causing death. And the same questions have arisen -- how safe is our American food supply? And what's the FDA doing about it?
First -- let's talk about the peanut butter problem:
As of today, at least 7 Americans have died, three of them in Minnesota, after eating the tainted peanut butter products. Almost 500 additional people seem to have gotten sick from the salmonella poisoning. It's possible thousands more have ingested the salmonella, but didn't get sick enough to report problems.
The problem isn't with peanut butter in a jar -- so your Jif and Skippy are safe. The problem is with other products that use peanut butter as an ingredient. If they purchased that processed peanut butter from the Peanut Corporation of America, and it was made in a plant in Blakely, Georgia, then it's entirely possible the product they make is now contaminated with salmonella, too.
- Here's the FDA's master list of peanut butter ingredient products that have been recalled.
- The question on your mind may be whether a product you've already purchased, or hope to purchase, is safe from salmonella. The American Peanut Council has put out an advisory that tells what foods seem to be OK (so far.)
- The CDC has posted an update on the investigation into the salmonella outbreak, and has a map to track where people have gotten sick.
So now that we have the immediate information needs taken care of, we'll return to the bigger problem. That is -- why is it we continue to have problems with foods that the FDA should be protecting us from?
Consider:
- The plant that seems to have produced the salmonella has been cited for violations for years. Yes, years! Why wasn't that plant shut down?
- When the first manufacturer, King Nut, issued its recall due to salmonella, the FDA waited four days to do the same. Why did it take so long?
- Now here's a major question mark: In a teleconference put on by the FDA (and reported by Ingrid Koo, our About.com guide to infectious diseases) the salmonella found at that plant, and the one causing the illness, may not even be the same strain of salmonella. What's that all about?
The bottom line is that the FDA, and in this case it seems like the CDC, too, just aren't doing any better than they have been, and Americans are paying the price with their lives and health.
For now, the best we can do is to try to keep up with the peanut butter information being issued through the press about what may -- or may not -- be safe. And pray we aren't the first ones to eat something that turns out later not to be safe.
Because for now, it seems prayer may be far more effective than the FDA.
NOTE: As of January 29, this information has been updated.
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