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quote from the NYTimes:

Federal health officials on Saturday urged consumers to avoid eating cookies, cakes, ice cream and other foods that contain peanut butter until the authorities can learn more about a deadly outbreak of salmonella contamination.

Most peanut butter sold in jars at supermarkets appears to be safe, said Stephen Sundlof, head of the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety center.

i just bought a jar of peter pan friday. i've eaten from it about 5 times and i am fine.

Have a large jar and will finish it as we have eaten from it already and survived the experience. Will buy more in the jar and stay away from the add in items which is usually crap anyway.

According to the news this morning, jarred peanut butter is fine as it is processed in a controlled environment.

It is the snack foods, where bulk peanut butter is used in numerous products.

So, I am good to go!

Uh, oh. I wonder if Girl Scout Cookie sales will go down or if people will just buy something other than peanutbutter and still try to support the young ladies?

I buy peanut butter about twice a year. The jar we have is from November and I baked cookies with it. No one got sick and I doubt it is affected.
We don't eat peanut butter so if they decide all peanut butter is bad I think those who eat it should move to another nut butter or to a brand that is made by a company that makes it's own and that is not mass produced.
Another thought is buy from a stores that carry natural organic handmade peanut butter.
If you want to be sure it is safe make it yourself. Buy some good raw peanuts, roast them and salt them as you wish and then run them through the food processor. You will know that it is good.

I read the warning carefully, and it applies to manufactured, processed foods that contain peanut butter – not to jars of peanut butter – so I'm good. We mainly eat peanut butter with sliced apples, anyhow, so one jar lasts a long time.

I rarely buy PB (probably once a year or so), and if I do, it's Wegman's organic. I used one jar back in late November to make a peanut butter mousse pie, the other one is still in the cupboard (and I'm going to make those PB cookies courtesy of chiff's brother). We were fine after the pie, so I'm not going to think twice before I use the remaining jar. I'm quite certain we're safe.

The tainted peanut butter is the stuff that's going to restaurant-supply warehouses and the like, not Skippy. It doesn't affect me in the least.

I have a sudden craving for those peanut butter sandwiches with the toasty crackers. Why doesn't anyone sell those crackers sans filling? Or do they?

They don't sell those orange "cheese" crackers separately, either, but the toasty ones are actually good.

Article doesn't mention Hershey's, so I will continue to finish off the Reeses from Christmas.

Not affecting me at all.

I have an autoimmune disorder. But death by peanut butter? Worth it!

Okay, I understand the concern--if you haven't had a bad case of 'sal&ella" then perhaps you might not understand fully just how miserable or for some how dangerous it actually is. I am talking about blood and stool tested confirmed cases, rather than "I have an upset stomach so it's gotta be..."
No, there shouldn't be a panic, but for those of us who just happen to have loved ones who dine in "institutional settings," hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and college dining halls, etc.; I do think this is valid concern. Not a panic button to press, but at least a valid desrving attention. Here's the latest thing I've found from the FDA regarding this specific food safety issue:
http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph.html

I, of course, just bought a carton of haagen-dazs chocolate peanut butter ice cream. I'll leave it in the freezer until this whole thing settles down...

I work as a manager in the patient food services in a large hospital. We had to pull all individual peanut butter packages as well as all PB&J sandwiches from all of the units. The individual peanut butter packages ended up in our office.... I took the individual peanut butter packages and used them to dunk the minature leftover Christmas chocolate into.... feeling fine.

In the scheme of things, the "peanut butter crisis" points to the ineptitude of the bifurcated food regulation system in our country --national food safety is split between the FDA and the Department of Agriculture, with less than effective results.

Nevertheless, I'm eating my peanut butter --organic by the way, and feeling good about it. Though I could be completely fooling myself in thinking that it's safer because it's is organic as I haven't seen scientific evidence indicating this to be the case.

Cheers to PB.

@dhorst--the Mayo Clinic is a reputable source regarding medical issues.

I did include a link to the site, and if an individual feels that it is not valid, they are certainly free to ignore it.

I didn't include it in reference to the peanut butter epidemic specifically, but just a warning that the idea that if you feel fine after eating ANY product that you might be worried about regarding salmonella, that doesn't mean it is okay for everyone.

Regarding the recall specific to peanut butter, I would certainly advise everyone to consult specific information regarding the recall regarding what brands and products are affected.

@heart, wasn't directed at you either, you were smart enough to link us to your source and I did check it out, certainly reputable and I'm sorry if you thought it was directed at you. I was thinking about the "THINK BEFORE YOU WRITE," comment. If you check out my previous post, it linked directly to the FDA rather than dmarina's quote that didn't have at least have a source mentioned. It's a sensitve issue for me due to the fact that I couldn't work in the food industry for more than two months, due to the fact that I tested positive for the darn thing after eating at a place for munchies and a beer with my husband. I was so friggin' sick for three plus weeks. I did lose more than twenty pounds, but it's just not the way to do it. And iron gut husband did not get sick despite eating the same thing, unlike the 219 cases that included me and ended up in the restaurants closure. At least I didn't work at the place. So heartofglass I wasn't stepping on your toes, and now I feel bad that you felt my comments were directed at you. : (

The discussion of whether jarred peanut butter is included or not reminds me of the e.coli spinach outbreak of a few years back. While the only spinach affected was that processed in a certain facility in California (admittedly, a huge facility that got its paws on most bagged baby spinach brands), farmers here in NY state saw people bypassing their locally-grown spinach, and I spoke to a few farmers who had had to plow their spinach under because the restaurants they sold produce to took all the spinach dishes off the menu.

Spinach grown in NY state, and in fact any unprocessed spinach grown and purchased locally anywhere in the country, were not susceptible to the e.coli outbreak that originated from that facility, but consumers heard "don't eat spinach" and so they didn't.

Recall language tends to err on the side of safety, which I suppose is better than the other way around, but the take-home message from most of the pieces I've read about the peanut butter recall is "avoid peanut butter," not specifically "avoid processed foods made with peanut butter," and memories of the Peter Pan recall only fan the fire.

However, the more recalls that occur, the more US consumers will become more aware of where their food comes from - we can only hope - and if our new president can make sure the COOL law the Bush administration ignored (despite its passing) is allowed to be effective, we'll be in better shape.

Just one more reason to get off our dependency on agri-business. How is this not getting totally ridiculous?

Oh, no, Little Debbie has been affected now by this too:
http://www.littledebbie.com/about/news.asp

Thank god the Nutty Bars aren't part of the problem. Thought maybe I'd poisoned the kids.

@heart--still friends? ; )

@cookingbooks--valid point there!

I just got back from the grocery store, where I debated purchasing some PB&J "uncrustables." I decided they are convenient, but silly. I had no idea they are deadly. I haven't seen the news in a couple of days!

@ everyone - I wish you the best of health; good luck to you all--stay strong!

Actually dmarina, if you click on the link you posted and then further read about the Little Debbie recall regarding the peanut butter issue, you will find this statement:

"Most peanut butter sold in jars at supermarkets appears to be safe, the Food and Drug Administration said Saturday":

And personally, I have a problem with the very first word. "Most" is not something i'm willing to take a chance on.

Thanks for the link - i'm definately staying away from ALL peanut butter for a while - guess it can't hurt!

I am at the bottom of a jar which hasn't killed anyone yet.  But the
frightened mother in me is going to buy something-else butter for
a while because if anything happened I would have to jump off
of the highest structure I could find.

For what its worth, some jars of peanut butter were recalled, but they were jars usually used in restaurants, school cafeterias, hospitals and nursing homes.

"An Ohio-based food distributor has voluntarily recalled two brands of peanut butter after it was told salmonella found in an open five-pound tub sold under the King Nut label.

King Nut Cos, in a statement released Saturday, said it immediately contacted its customers and asked them to remove all King Nut peanut butter and Parnell's Pride peanut butter from the market.

The Solon, Ohio-based King Nut supplies peanut butter to food service companies that distribute the products to institutions like hospitals, schools, restaurants and nursing homes. The brands are not sold directly to consumers.
....

On Friday, Minnesota health officials issued a product alert for King Nut brand creamy peanut butter after finding a jar that was contaminated with a strain of salmonella linked to an outbreak across the United States."

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5090HM20090111

So the 'jarring' of pb doesn't eliminate the contagion, apparently, just commercial brands aren't flagged right now, but the fact that some jars are affected is why the FDA is advising people to avoid the products.

As a side note, it's really sad that the brand is used by people who can be most affected by the illness.

@dhorst: I am so sorry to hear about your illness. I hope there are no residual affects! Your son is quite right. That is heaven. Sooo very good. But then again, I love anything that has to do with Jif Peanut Butter. It's the best.

That's right, I said it. And I grew up with the All Natural stuff too. And I don't feel guilty about it. :-)

Mnemosyne, you probably already know this, but on the slightest chance of ambiguity in your post, I just want to remind you that you can get your money back on those bars.

I'm taking their word for it that jarred peanut butter is fine. I'm also assuming that the peanut butter crackers I've had for over a year are okay. Does anyone know how far back the supposed contamination goes?

nom nom nom, i just ate three jars of peanut butter.

for all the folks passing the info on THANK YOU. My partner is a recent organ transplant recipient, and knowing these things is very important. For those of you who included links of documentation, thank you even more...it allows those of us who choose to verify everything the way to do so.
As to panic responses....i think these happen more and more every day, be it health scares, weather scares, anything that puts people in danger is reported and then grows virally. For all of our technology, we humans do not do a good job of safety for our people.
Being chief cook and bottle washer for a immune compromised individual, I am learning that the fresher the better, the less processed the better, however the learning curve is steep, the costs are great, and living in the great winter of the midwest, freshness of healthy food can be difficult. We need to be focusing on how to make it better, easier, safer, and drop the defensiveness and sensitiveness over words.
~stepping down from my soap box

Teddie brand super chunky has been on my lunch menu for the past couple of weeks; so far so good. We do make our own peanut butter every now and again, and it's pretty good, so if you have any worries do that :) What a world...good luck to us all!

My brother works in a laboratory which tests batches of peanuts from major producers. He said that a lab in Georgia had tested the nuts from southern Georgia and notified the company that the nuts tested positive but a person at the plant shipped them out despite the results.

As to the person making your own pb, how can you be sure the peanuts you use aren't tainted?

yaya

*raising hand* slightly off-topic, but how many folks keep their pb in the fridge? My husband's great-grandmother did this, but it just seems weird to me.

to yayajac: an article i just read said they are assuming the contamination happened after the nuts had already became peanut butter/paste, since the roasting process of the nuts would heat them to a high enough temperature to kill the bacteria

i'm not worried about any jarred peanut butter, just peanut butter-containing products.. i'm holding off on eating any products i have to see what companies continue to announce recalls

ironically enough, a few days before the recalls, i had just ordered several bags of Bear Naked Peanut Butter granola from their website.. so far so good though, they haven't made any recalls, hope it stays that way