Government Warns: Don't Eat Peanut Butter

U.S. health authorities told consumers 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 Food and Drug Administration'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 U.S. states, the 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.

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

The recalled peanut butter was sold in bulk packaging in containers ranging in size from 5 pounds to 1,700 pounds and the peanut paste was sold in sizes ranging from 35-pound containers to tanker containers. None of the peanut butter or peanut paste being recalled is sold through retail stores, PCA said.

Kellogg said late Friday it was recalling certain products that "have the potential to be contaminated," including some Austin and Keebler branded peanut butter snacks

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