" regular jars of peanut butter are not affected,"

YET.

...do those crackers say "Peanut Butter and Cheese"????

I'm eating Kroger Cheese Peanut Butter crackers right now.

S'okay though. I have health insurance.

Don't know if it effects the peanut butter industry or not but I can say from the egg farms near my home and other food industries that hire illegal immigrants. If they care less about the border laws what makes you think the will give a rats a** about things like washing their hands, cleaning equipment, or even think twice about crapping in the field instead of going back up to use a bathroom (good possibility for the lettuce scare a while ago).

This might be a dumb question, but how does salmonella infect peanut butter? I thought it was mostly associated with eggs or undercooked chicken.

@homerjay wants Boston Legal back!:

You'll have to pry my jar out of peanut butter out of my cold, dead, salmonelly hands!!

@dripdrop: Probably due to the process equipment not being cleaned correctly or additive in the butter.

@littlemisslondon: Yeah. My brother eats them. They look even worse than they sound. Bright cheeto orange.

@evilhapposai: Isn't it more likely that it's due to the same machinery being used to process both peanut butter and products with raw eggs rather than people crapping in fields? Just a guess on my part.

@Scuba Steve: Oh, your company pays for the BCBS "immunity" option as well? *crunch, crunch*

Thank you deregulation and lax/non enforcement of safety standards. You've really saved a lot of money by ignoring safety/sanitation. No one could have imagined that letting industries regulate themselves would have led to this.

/snark

@evilhapposai: Unless you have some evidence that this has something to do with the article, you shouldn't post. A screed about illegal immigrants is at best off-topic and at worst trolling.

Fortunately for me, Lance has stated they make their own peanut butter, so my ToastChee is safe to eat.

And all this right after I bought a 6-month supply of my Austin peanut butter crackers. Oh well, live dangerously...

Hmm, I guess I shouldn't have eaten that chocolate peanut butter clif bar this morning.

(clutches stomach)

@econobiker: Poultry (including eggs, as people note, since it's not just in the intestinal system) and cattle are big vectors, but it also turns up in cats and hamsters, and it can apparently live for awhile in some home locations, too.

So basically it likes to start in animals, but it's happy to hang around in other substances if it gets transferred.

@Blitzgal: Just an example for one of the many recent tainted foods. Poo in the fields would probably be more of a problem for fresh vegetables (i.e. the Taco Bell lettuce scare).

Point is just that IF the factory hires illegal immigrants in the plants that have no regard for rules then like you said with using the same machine, what would make them care if they would use the machine without cleaning it first.

Bigger problem than most realize. If you were to yell "IMMIGRATION" on the front door of the egg farm here more than half of the employees would be running out the back.

@littlemisslondon: They don't taste bad, though, and I don't even like peanut butter. but they're definitely freaky-looking.

@dripdrop: [www.fsis.usda.gov]

@evilhapposai: Nice. Tell you what, if you have some evidence other than your xenophobic paranoia, please present it. I'm an open minded fellow.

As others have stated, its more likely lack of sanitation in the processing equipment and general sanitation standards. BTW- Who is responsible for enforcing sanitation standards? The company, FDA and USDA. If the company cares so much about sanitation, why not enforce it? They can make the "illegals" do whatever they want or they get fired- no rights, no unemployment, etc. The COMPANY has decided that it doesn't care about enforcing santitation and so it doesn't do anything about it. Also, Bush has decided to cut the enforcement budget of the FDA/USDA and reinterpret rules to let these companies do whatever they want and police themselves. So, you wanted to pay $2 less annually on taxes? Well, no Nutter Butters for you!

Country of origin of this tainted peanut butter is ... ?

USA! "samples originating from its Blakely, Ga., processing plant"

@Trencher93:

U.S.A, baby! As of this morning, AP press is reporting that the FDA has traced the outbreak back to a plant in Blakely, Georgia owned by Peanut Corporation of America.

@dripdrop:

The company that manufactures Peter Pan says they do not buy ingredients or supplies from the Peanut Corporation of America, which is where the outbreak supposedly originated, so if Peter Pan is your poison of choice, your probably good. You can just double check to see if your brand has anything to do with that manufacturer.
Hopefully there isn't a larger, international peanut butter poisoning conspiracy going down. That could bring America to its knees.

@homerjay wants Boston Legal back!:

Regular peanut butter is not made from peanut paste... which is the product in question. Peanut paste is mostly used for commercial baking, fillers, etc.

I'm going to get up and eat a big spoonful of Jif right now! The only thing that'll kill me is the saturated/trans fats!

@evilhapposai:

Your nasty and inappropriate xenophobia aside... You are WAAAAAAAAY wrong. The salmonella came from a leaking roof and defective sprinkler. It had *nothing* to do with employee sanitation.

Jeez... do a little reading before you spout off and show your intolerance!

@homerjay wants Boston Legal back!:

Don't worry... peanut butter in a jar is *NOT* made from peanut paste - which is the product in question. Peanut paste is mostly used in commercial baked goods/snacks.

Eat up and don't worry!

@dripdrop:

Nasty roof/sprinkler water drips on the processing equipment. That's the story here.

@littlemisslondon: They don't taste much like peanut butter or cheese.

Don't worry, Obama just took the oath of office. It's probably safe to eat that peanut butter again.

@Katxyz: I was really hoping they would say it was from Virginia. Jimmy Carter must be crushed.

Are Girl Scout cookies safe?

@SuvarnarekhaLazork: Aren't those sold only once a year?

453 people in 45 states? So ten people per state...in a country of 300 freaking million?!? Come on, this is obviously blown way out of proportion. How much do the peanut assoc. people going to lose because of this. This smells and looks just like the ridiculous lettuce, tomato, and pepper scares of late.

Lance crackers are safe, FYI, because they make their own peanut butter for all of their products.

[www.lance.com]

@Shawn Carter: Keep in mind that illness from contamination is grossly underreported. It's likely that the true extent of the illnesses is 5-10x as much.

@squidboots: And it would be nice to enforce safety codes for food, no matter if "only" one person dies or if thousands of people die. Accountability is a good thing for businesses and individuals.

There have been hundreds of illnesses as a result of peanut butter on my taint, but the FDA hasn't done anything about it!

@ptkdude:
Mmmm ToastChee.

This article is actually making me want some peanut butter crackers.

@ptkdude: thank you! i've been so worried about my lance crackers! i ate them anyway of course but nice to know.

@SuvarnarekhaLazork: I was actually just wondering the same thing as it is Girl Scout cookie season, and I just placed my order for one box of peanut butter sandwich cookies. They aren't on the FDA's company recall list, but I'll have to check more into this given how widespread it's becoming.

@Scuba Steve: Got the Meijer brand ones here, also have health insurance. Time to chow down and start sharing with the co-workers!

@Blitzgal: Fecal matter can be fertilization anyway, although only if properly treated first. But, I thought the lettuce problems were from runoff containing pesticides?

@Robobot:

It's a real common cracker combination. Lots of companies make them.

@Shawn Carter: Good point. To keep things in perspective, about 100 people die per day in auto accidents (based on approx. 40,000 annual fatalities). Of course someone should fix that leaky roof, and we should throw away the bad peanut butter, but there's no need to freak way out. This is a typical case of rare risk getting disproportionate attention.

@VandyMonkee:
Yes, they are safe. Both of the companies that make the cookies (ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers) have press releases on their websites declaring the peanut butter varieties to be safe. We can all breathe easy now.

@evilhapposai: At least they might be able to distinguish the difference between "affect" and "effect" /pet peeve

@econobiker: Butter, as in the dairy product that people might add to cookies or spread on toast, is not an ingredient in peanut butter. "Natural" peanut butter is made from roasted peanuts and in some cases, salt is added. The peanut butter that most consumers prefer (in the case of brands such as Skippy or Jif) contains primarily peanuts, sugar, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil, and salt. (Other preservatives may be used as well.)

You may be right on your first speculation though. Improperly cleaned equipment or a weakness in the production facility's sanitation processes are often the source of food product contamination.

those crackers would be PERFECT with the magotty brownies.