Since the shrink ray is so prevalent, marketers need to generate an eye-catching symbol that signifies the product hasn't been downsized, still giving customers the same value. Has anyone seen similar products bragging about their shrink ray avoidance?

Take it away, Pedro:

ConAgra Foods, maker of Peter Pan Peanut Butter products has come up with an ingenious way to use the Grocery Shrink Ray Gun to pad their bottom line and at the same time save the Earth (or at least fool those pesky tree huggars!).

I normally eat PBnJ sandwiches at least 3 times a week. For myself, its been a staple for lunch that provides me a filling and delicious meal at a reasonable cost. However, the jar I normally purchase has been reduced in size to something slimmer, yet slightly taller. At first glance, it seems as if you're getting a larger jar. The bold sticker claiming "New Earth Friendly Jar - Now 9% less plastic per oz." even made me feel warm and fuzzy inside knowing that another corporate giant was taking a step to being a more responsible corporate citizen. Well on my way home, I got to thinking how strange it was for a claim to say 9% less per oz. The 'per oz.' just sounded fishy and based on what I read about the Grocery Shrink Ray Gun, I had my suspicions. When I arrived home, I pulled out my trusty calculator and went with my hunch. I wondered to myself if the difference in package sizes amounted to the very same 9% that ConAgra was claiming to save the Earth by. Well I divided the 462 grams of their Earth friendly jar with the 510 grams from their non-Earth friendly jar which gave me a figure of 91% rounded up. My suspicions were correct. ConAgra was saving the earth by selling us the same product in a smaller package at the same price. Grocery Shrink Ray guns strikes again!

For ConAgra to dupe their customers under the guise of an environmental goodwill gesture is downright sleazy. That's like GM selling an Eco Friendly Hummer because they created a model that had a 10 gallon fuel tank as opposed to a 20 gallon fuel tank (notwithstanding that they would also be ripping their customers by skimping on their product and selling less then what is expected).

How is this Earth friendly?

We suspect Captain Hook or his shifty-eyed first mate Smee have made off with the extra PB and this is all just a cover-up.

(Photos: Pedro)

Our advice: mark some dates on your calendar—like say in June and sometime next fall—where you revisit this list and make sure there's nothing new to get rid of.

Peanut Butter and other Peanut Containing Products Recall List [FDA]

Or as ConsumerReports.org puts it, "When in doubt, throw it out."

"Salmonella update: 'This is not over yet'"

You can grab your own copy of this widget from fda.org.

(Thanks to legwork for the, uh, legwork.)

(Photo: Hendricks Photo)

As with the PCA plant in Blakely, Georgia, the products were sold to other manufacturers, so apparently our national pb-in-a-jar supply is still safe, if you're feeling brave and peanut hungry.

Officials at the plant, which opened in March 2005 and produced oil-roasted peanuts, dry-roasted peanuts, peanut meal and granulated peanut, voluntarily stopped operations Monday night.

"Our understanding is that the bulk of their products go to other food manufacturers," McBride said. "We're not aware of any direct sales to consumers."

Of course, the big difference between the Plainview plant and the Blakely plant is that no sickness or death has been reported so far from any batches of the Texas-produced product. We suspect the investigation was triggered by the sudden spotlight on PCA's lax health practices, and public demand that Texas make sure PCA was doing a better job in the Lone Star State. (Turns out it wasn't.)

What we're wondering now is, how do the employees of the Plainview plant feel knowing that PCA's negligence allowed them to breathe in dead animals and poop every day? They'd better jump on any lawsuits quickly before PCA ceases to exist.

"Dead rodents, excrement in peanut processor lead to recall " [CNN]
"Texas orders peanut recall from company's 2nd plant" [Reuters]
(Photo: stevendepolo)

Small chains like Dorothy Lane Markets in Ohio have brought in extra employees to call and send letters to customers who bought recalled products, while wholesale giant Costco has been making robocalls to its customers.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest called on other retailers who run loyalty programs to contact their members about recalls.

Robo recalls: Grocery Chains Big and Small Alert Shoppers to Recalls [Consumer Reports]
(Photo: amyadoyzie)

The Senate hearings yesterday were a sad reminder of the problems in our food safety system. Whether it was due to underfunding, understaffing, or bureaucratic mismanagement, the FDA hadn't directly inspected the plant since 2001:

According to the FDA, it last inspected PCA's Blakely plant in 2001, before the company started producing peanut butter. It relied on state inspectors to review the factory in 2006, 2007 and 2008 — and those inspections showed unsanitary practices the FDA later said were "somewhat resolved."

"It was not until 2007, when the plant was inspected under FDA contract by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, that we recognized that in addition to just producing peanuts, they were producing peanut butter and peanut paste," Dr. Steve Sundlof of the agency's Food Safety and Applied Nutrition center told the Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday.

When federal officials obtained the company's records, they discovered that 12 times in the past two years the company knowingly shipped products that initial tests showed were contaminated with salmonella.

PCA says further tests came back negative, which is why they shipped the products anyway, which seems to be the worst possible safety protocol to follow when it comes to the food supply (but a great one if you're only minding the bottom line, we suppose).

Even if the FDA had known that PCA produced peanut butter and peanut paste, and that the products had at one time tested positive for salmonella, the agency can't legally stop the company from shipping the product.

"The FDA does not have authority to force a manufacturer who's producing contaminated food to recall it," [former FDA associate commissioner William] Hubbard said. "They can beg them to, but they cannot order them to — and that's a flaw in the system."

And finally, the reason it took so long to trace the salmonella outbreak back to PCA was partly due to a lack of infrastructure that would allow doctors to aggregate data on patients in order to see trends. You'd think that by 2008, creating a database that can cross-reference patient variables and look for patterns would be a possibility, but when Senator Harkin asked a CDC official at yesterday's hearing why this wasn't the case, the official responded that there was no money to set up such a system.

FDA officials said they moved as fast as they could given the evidence they had. But Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC's food-borne bacterial illness division, agreed the system is overly complicated, prone to delays and underfunded.

"The reality is that we have 50 different states, each with their own authorities, each with their own processes and each with their own budgets," Tauxe said.

Surely the savings that would result from reduced sick leave and fewer hospital bills would justify improvements. Hey Google, maybe you can help? Bill and Melinda Gates? Got any extra foundation money? It would be nice to have an infrastructure that works.

Hubbard said the result is "an embarrassment" to a 21st-century nation — about 5,000 deaths a year from food poisoning, with another 325,000 hospitalized and tens of millions sickened, according to CDC figures.

"We are losing the equivalent of the World Trade Center attacks every eight months to food-borne illness," Hubbard said.

"Poor oversight fueled salmonella outbreak, critics say" [CNN]

RELATED
"Vilsack Says Single Food-Inspection Agency Needed" [Bloomberg]
(Photo: Dano)

CNN says:

Jay Blanton, spokesman for Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, said late Wednesday: "We just received this information from FEMA. Tonight, out of an abundance of caution, we are in the process of finding alternative sources of food for people in shelters. The Kentucky National Guard is starting to notify people who've already received the (meal kits) or might be getting one."

The meals have a variety of main dishes, but all apparently contain peanut butter packets. Do not eat.

FEMA food kits may contain tainted peanut butter [CNN]

"We want the public to know that there were regular visits and inspections of the Blakely facility by federal and state regulators in 2008," Peanut Corp of America said.

"Independent audit and food safety firms also conducted customary unannounced inspections of the Blakely facility in 2008," it said in a statement, noting the plant got an overall superior rating on one visit and, in another, was found to "meet or exceed" audit expectations.

"Peanut Corp of America says plant was inspected" [Reuters]
"Inspection reports from peanut plant varied widely" [Associated Press]

RELATED
"Big Pharma Goes Before Supreme Court To Get State Lawsuits Banned"

In a letter to the acting Attorney General, Senate Judiciary Chair Pat Leahy (D-VT) and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn) write:

Through its investigation, the Food and Drug Administration has determined that Peanut Corporation of America knowingly distributed potentially contaminated product after samples tested positive for salmonella more than a dozen times in the past two years to more than 100 consignee firms, for use as an ingredient in hundreds of different food products. In addition to knowingly selling these tainted products, Peanut Corporation of America also shopped for a laboratory that would provide the acceptable results they were seeking after initial tests found their products to be contaminated. This Salmonella outbreak involving peanut butter products is now linked to eight deaths and has sickened approximately 500 people across the country, forcing one of the largest food recalls in history.

It is clear that the behavior of the Peanut Corporation of America was egregious – harming hundreds of Americans and endangering many thousands more. We believe it is critical to determine whether the actions and omissions of this company rose to the level of criminal conduct. If crimes were committed, those responsible must be identified and held accountable.

This probably won't satisfy some of our commenters, who have called for Chinese-style punishment for PCA's directors, but we're hopeful that justice will be served.

Leahy Calls for Criminal Investigation Into Peanut-Salmonella Outbreak

As someone who has worked in Industrial Microbiology for over 16 years, I can tell you that the situation described here happens more often than you would think.

The main goal of any manufacturing plant is to get the product out the door, so that they can get paid by their customer. Some manufacturing plants will do whatever they can to get microbiologically failing product to market and cover their butts in the process. From my experience, some of the most common tricks dishonest manufacturers try to pull are as follows.

1) Test to Compliance - Microbiological contamination is often not evenly distributed throughout a product. That means that it is possible that if you retest a sample, test another container or another part of the batch, you may not pick up the objectionable organism. If you are testing for overall bacterial or fungal count, it is possible the count on the retest may be lower. Some companies with failing products will continue to send in samples of the same product until they get passing data. They then destroy all of the failing data and are left with a lab report showing that their product is acceptable.

2) Combining Failing Batches with Passing Batches - If a batch is failing for overall bacteria or fungal count, some companies will blend the failing product into passing product to dilute the microbiological contamination to acceptable levels. Lot numbers for the product are then altered to cover their tracks. They then destroy all of the failing data and are left with a lab report showing that their product is microbiologically acceptable.

3) They Purposely Mislabel Samples - If a product fails microbiological testing, some companies will remove the failing product from the sample package and substitute passing product. Now the sample that is sent to the lab has the failing product's lot number on it, but the sample material inside is passing product. Once the testing is complete, the company receives a lab report showing that the failing product passed testing. They then destroy all of the failing data and are left with a lab report showing that their product is acceptable.

4) They Use a Different Laboratory - All contract microbiology laboratories are not created equal. They run the gamut from a state-of-the-art building with tens of thousands of square feet of work space to a mom and pop operation operating in a two room suite in an office complex. The quality of work these laboratories perform and the reliability of data they produce can vary greatly. If a product is failing at one laboratory, some manufacturers will just send their samples to other laboratories until they get results that they like. The big question is always "Does the manufacturer want the best quality data or do they want passing data?" The truthful answer is that it depends on the customer.

5) They Use Their "Alternate" Laboratory - If I told you that there were microbiology laboratories out in the world that accepts samples, never tests them and then issues passing reports, would you believe it?

6) They Mislead Their Microbiology Laboratory - Sometimes companies will request that their microbiology laboratory change lot numbers on reports, claiming they mistakenly wrote incorrect lot numbers on the incoming sample submission sheets. The microbiology laboratory may innocently and unknowingly provide documentation that allows failing product to ship.

7) They Bully the Microbiology Laboratory - Sometimes manufacturers with failing product request that the microbiology laboratory provide them with a report indicating passing data. Sometimes they remind the laboratory of how much revenue they generate for them. They even may threaten to pull their business is the microbiology laboratory refuses to comply. Money can be a powerful motivator.

8) They Find Another Laboratory - If the microbiology laboratory a manufacturer is using refuses to cave in and help them cover their tracks, the manufacturer may just find another laboratory that will "play ball" with them.

Now my disclaimer: What I have listed above represents my opinion and experience. The vast majority of manufacturers and microbiology laboratories are honest and work hard to do the right things. However, money is a powerful motivator. With product batches that can be worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, some rouge companies will do whatever they can to prevent product loss. Some are even willing to put the health and well-being of the public at risk.

I do not mean in any way to imply that The Peanut Corporation of America engaged in any type of wrongdoing. Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. I have no doubt that the FDA will determine the root cause of this situation and take any necessary corrective action.

(Photo: adamjtaylor)

Now, senior congressional and state officials are calling for a federal probe into whether these actions were criminal, according to USA Today.

The company's actions "can only be described as reprehensible and criminal," Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who oversees Food and Drug Administration funding, told USA Today. "Not only did this company knowingly sell tainted products, it shopped for a laboratory that would provide the acceptable results they were seeking. This behavior represents the worst of our current food safety regulatory system."

In a statement on its website (warning: PDF), Peanut Corp. denies the charge:

PCA uses only two highly reputable labs for product testing and they are widely used by the industry and employ good laboratory practices. PCA categorically denies any allegations that the Company sought favorable results from any lab in order to ship its products.

"Officials want criminal probe of Peanut Corp. for shipping salmonella-tainted peanut butter" [NY Daily News] (Thanks to Daniel!)

RELATED
"Salmonella Peanut Butter Plant Repeatedly Violated Health Codes"

State health inspection reports from 2006 and 2007 obtained by the New York Times found that the plant, owned by Peanut Corporation of America, did not properly clean and sanitize kettles, belts, or pans, among other violations. This is especially a problem when the plant in question had salmonella on the floor, which recent inspections confirmed this plant did.

Food safety and consumer groups are outraged that none of these violations triggered any kind of enforcement or punitive action, but it's pretty commonplace for the FDA, which has limited resources or power to punish food manufacturers and order recalls. Thankfully, that might change soon. Some influential members of Congress are proposing food safety improvements for the FDA and USDA, and we're hopeful that some positive change comes out of this situation.

Peanut Plant Was Cited for Violations [NYT]
Salmonella Peanut Product Recall Grows [LAT]
(Photo: fallenposters)

Most recently Clif Bars and Luna Bars that contain peanut butter have been recalled, as well as Kroger peanut butter ice cream, ZonePerfect peanut butter bars, and Meijer peanut butter crackers.

To see a full list of the affected peanutty treats, click on over to the FDA.

The FDA also has a searchable database of contaminated peanut items.

Also, it should be noted that regular jars of peanut butter are not affected, so if you stopped eating your peanut butter and toast in horror as you read this post, you can go back to it. It's fine.

The problem is that the affected products aren't sold in one or two pound jars that are sold in supermarkets. The contaminated peanut butter from the Peanut Corporation of America factory in Georgia was sold in bulk packages that weighed between five and 1700 pounds. Contaminated peanut paste was sold in sizes ranging from 35 pounds to whole tanker containers. That's a lot of contaminated peanut butter!

Until the FDA salmonella hunters can determine who got which tanker of what, they don't want anyone eating manufactured products with peanut butter. Sorry!

Because identification of products subject to recall is continuing, the FDA urges consumers to postpone eating commercially-prepared or manufactured peanut butter-containing products and institutionally-served peanut butter until further information becomes available about which products may be affected. Efforts to specifically identify those products are ongoing.

At this time, there is no indication that any national name brand jars of peanut butter sold in retail stores are linked to the PCA recall. As the investigation continues over the weekend, and into next week, the FDA will be able to update the advice based on new sampling and distribution information.

It's not like most of this stuff goes bad quickly, so just keep it in the pantry for a few weeks until you know it's safe.

For the moment, you definitely want to throw out the following products:

Hy-Vee Inc.

Recall includes all sell-by dates for the following products, sold in various
packaging and quantities and having a Hy-Vee price label attached. Sold in
all Hy-Vee stores in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota
and Minnesota.

Assorted Truffle Fudge
Lunchbox Peanut Butter Cookies
Lunchbox Reese’s Pieces Cookies
Monster Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Reese’s Pieces Cookies
People Chow Party Mix

Kellogg Company

Kellogg products impacted by the recall were produced on or after July 1,
2008, including:
Austin® Quality Foods Cheese Crackers with Peanut Butter - all
sizes
Austin® Quality Foods Cheese & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers – all
sizes

Austin® Quality Foods Mega Stuffed Cheese Crackers with Peanut
Butter – all sizes
Austin® Quality Foods PB & J Cracker Sandwiches – all
sizes
Austin® Quality Foods Super Snack Pack Sandwich Crackers

Austin® Quality Foods Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers – all
sizes
Austin® Quality Foods Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter – all
sizes
Austin® Quality Foods Reduced Fat Cheese & Peanut Butter
Sandwich Crackers

Austin® Quality Foods Reduced Fat Toasty Crackers with Peanut
Butter Sandwich Crackers
Austin® Quality Foods Cookie/Cracker Pack
Austin® Quality Foods Variety Pack
Famous Amos® Peanut Butter Cookies (2- and 3-ounce)

Keebler® Cheese & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers – all
sizes
Keebler® Toast & PB'n J Flavored Sandwich Crackers – all
sizes

Keebler® Toast & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers – all
sizes
Keebler® Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter Cookies (2.5-ounce)

King Nut Companies

All King Nut and Parnell’s Pride peanut butter of all types distributed
by King Nut with item numbers that begin with 038445 on the individual tub
and if still in a case, all lot codes that begin in “8”

McKee Foods Corporation

Little Debbie® Peanut Butter Toasty sandwich crackers — all sizes.
Little Debbie® Peanut Butter Cheese sandwich crackers — all sizes.

Perry's Ice Cream Company

Perry’s is recalling ice cream products containing peanut butter sauce,
which have been recalled by PCA.

Products affected by the recall are as follows:

ITEM DESCRIPTION
Perry's Premium Peanut Butter Cup Craze Ice Cream 1/2 Pint
Perry's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream 1.5 QT, 1.75 QT AND 3 GL
Perry's Peanut Butter Chip Frozen Yogurt 1.5 QT, 1.75 QT and 3 GL
Perry's Peanut Butter Sundae Crunch Ice Cream Bar Bulk 24 pack

Perry's Premium Peanut Butter Fudge Ice Cream 1.5 QT and 1.75 QT
Perry's Perfectly Churned Light Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream 1.5 QT and 1.75
QT
Perry's Light Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream 1.75 QT
Shurfine Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream 1.75 QT
Wegmans Chocolate Nutty Cone Ice Cream 1.75 QT
Wegmans Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream 1.75 QT and Pint

Wegmans Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream 1.75 QT
Wegmans Peanut Butter Sundae Ice Cream 1.75 QT
Wegmans Peanut Butter Pretzel Ice Cream 1.75 QT
Wegmans Peanut Butter Crunch Ice Cream Bar 6 pack
Wegmans Peanut Butter Candy Sundae Cup Ice Cream 4 pack
Wegmans Peanut Butter Sundae Cup Ice Cream 4 pack

Salmonella Typhimurium Outbreak [FDA]
Voluntary Recalls
Frequently-Asked Questions and Answers about the Recent Salmonella Outbreak

If you have any of sandwich crackers listed below, put them aside until Kellogg says otherwise. Or you can call 888-314-2060 to ask about a refund.

Toasted peanut butter sandwich crackers.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich crackers.
Cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers.
Peanut butter-chocolate sandwich crackers.

Note: there haven't been any reports of salmonella poisoning from Kellogg products yet. This is a precautionary measure while Kellogg investigates.

"Kellogg warns not to eat its peanut butter crackers" [CNN]

The mystery continues, however, because there are still cases from states where that brand of peanut butter is not sold.

No peanut butter from this company has been sold directly to the public.

Peanut butter linked to salmonella outbreak is recalled [CNN]
King Nut Issues Peanut Butter Recall Photos [FDA]

The Minnesota Department of Health said Friday that a tub of the peanut butter from a nursing home that had patients ill with the national outbreak strain had tested positive for generic salmonella, says the health department's Doug Schultz.

"We've have 30 illnesses in Minnesota that are connected to the outbreak strain, and all of those 30 report eating some type of peanut butter, and many if not most of them have been connected to this King Nut brand," Schultz says.

The FDA says that the tests needed to confirm the strain of salmonella are not yet complete — and stressed that there is no conclusive evidence that links this peanut butter to the salmonella outbreak.

Again, the peanut butter isn't sold to the general public, so there's no need to toss out your peanut butter.

Tub of peanut butter checked for link to salmonella outbreak [USAToday]
(Photo:CDC)

Rick points out that on their website, they also claim "no oily mess," which we'd like to contrast with this photo Rick sent in:

(Photo: Nathan Huth)

The product liability suits associated with salmonella-contaminated peanut butter from ConAgra's Sylvester plant are flowing into U.S. District Court in Atlanta from across the country, including Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida and Oklahoma. Multiple plaintiffs have complained they were sickened multiple times because they unwittingly continued to eat tainted peanut butter that ConAgra did not recall until February.

ConAgra faces 39 suits over bad peanut butter [Daily Report]
Peanut Butter Salmonella Class Action [PeanutButterClassAction.com]
(AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Like this:

Consumers and retailers alike have been eagerly anticipating the return of Peter Pan Peanut Butter, the brand that consumers have loved for nearly 80 years, and the wait is over.

We're especially pleased by the 100% satisfaction guarantee, because that means if we catch salmonella this time, we can get our peanut butter money back.

Peter Pan peanut butter returns to shelves after salmonella outbreak [Chicago Tribune]

(Photo: Getty)

If you have peanut butter in your house that says "Peter Pan or "Great Value" and has a code on the lid beginning with 2111, THROW IT OUT. Do not eat it. It has salmonella. They haven't made any more of the peanut butter, and yet, people are still getting sick from it. It was recalled in February. It is now June. THROW THE DAMN PEANUT BUTTER AWAY. Don't make us come over there and throw it out for you.—MEGHANN MARCO

628 Sickened by Recalled Peanut Butter [Chicago Tribune]
(Photo: stopnlook)

The FDA checked out salmonella complaints at the ConAgra plant back in 2005, but left and didn't investigate further after the company didn't supply additional requested documents.

The FDA also knew of persistent problems with the spinach and other leafy green vegetables, but lacked sufficient resources to press the matter.

"This administration does not like regulation, this administration does not like spending money, and it has a hostility toward government. The poisonous result is that a program like the FDA is going to suffer at every turn of the road," said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich). — BEN POPKEN

FDA Was Aware of Dangers To Food [Washington Post] (Thanks to Lana!)

Childs said the company traced the salmonella outbreak to three problems at its Sylvester, Ga., plant last August.

The plant's roof leaked during a rainstorm, and the sprinkler system went off twice because of a faulty sprinkler, which was repaired.

The moisture from those three events mixed with dormant salmonella bacteria in the plant that Childs said likely came from raw peanuts and peanut dust.

The plant was cleaned thoroughly after the roof leak and sprinkler problem, but the salmonella remained and somehow came in contact with peanut butter before it was packaged, she said.

Leaky roof blamed for tainted peanut butter [MSNBC] (Thanks, jpc!)

PREVIOUSLY: Salmonella Peanut Butter Still Stalking Nation's Children
Recall: Salmonella In Peter Pan Peanut Butter

Stop eating the damn peanut butter. It did not cost you $10,000. You can send the jar to ConAgra and get a new one. It is not special rare peanut butter. Eating it will not give you magical powers. It will give you salmonella. That is all. —MEGHANN MARCO

Nearly 50 salmonella cases now linked to peanut butter in N.Y. [WSTM]
More cases of salmonella found in Colorado [9News]
(Photo: stopnlook)

PREVIOUSLY: Recall: Salmonella in Peter Pan Peanut Butter

The typical conversation goes something like this:

THEM: "We want to return this peanut butter."
ME: "Okay." And I check the top for the lot number. You never know. "Do you still have your receipt?"
THEM: "Who keeps food receipts?"
ME: "Okay. I just need your drivers license then."
THEM: "Why? I didn't need it when I bought it?"

And so on. All day long. WHY DO I HAVE TO HAVE A DRIVERS LICENSE TO RETURN RECALLED PEANUT BUTTER? No matter how much they bought I gave them cash back, even though we're supposed to do more than $5 on a gift card. I wasn't about to face off with some evil grannies and grampers over some salmonella-infected PB.

If I Never See Another Jar Of Peanut Butter [Behind The Counter]
(Photo:stopnlook)

Lids of jars with a product code beginning "2111" can be returned to ConAgra for a refund, the company said.

The salmonella outbreak, which federal health officials said Wednesday has sickened 288 people in 39 states since August, was linked to tainted peanut butter produced by ConAgra at a plant in Sylvester, Ga. How salmonella got into peanut butter is still under investigation, said Dr. Mike Lynch, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To get a refund, consumers should send lids and their names and addresses to ConAgra Foods, P.O. Box 57078, Irvine, CA 92619-7078. For more information, call (866) 344-6970.

Peanut butter recalled over salmonella [Boston Globe]