Another big peanut butter manufacturer has recalled one of its products because of possible Salmonella contamination.
This time it is the J.M. Smucker Co. that is recalling certain jars of its 16 oz. Smucker’s © Natural Peanut Butter.
The company said routine sampling found that the finished product might be contaminated by the bacteria, and the recall action was taken out of “an abundance of caution for consumer safety.” In the recall notice, the company says no illnesses have been associated with the Smucker’s © Natural Peanut Butter.
Only the chunky version, not the creamy alternative, of the 16 oz. Smucker’s © Natural Peanut Butter, is being recalled. The “best-if-used-by: dates are Aug. 3, 2012 and Aug. 4, 2012.
Consumers, according to the manufacturer, would have purchased the product between Nov. 8 and 17, 2011. The UPC number, located on the jar’s label between the bar code, is 5150001701. Production codes are 1307004 and 1308004.
About 3,000 jars of peanut butter are apparently covered by those codes.
The recalled peanut butter was distributed to 24 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.
J.S. Smucker’s is a major supplier for Wal-Mart Stores, which represents about $1 in every $4 of its sales through the Arkansas-based retailer. Since 2002, peanut butter has represented about 12 percent of Smucker’s current annual sales, which total around $1.5 billion.
Smucker’s is based in Orrville, OH with manufacturing facilities located throughout the U.S.
Salmonella busted out as a peanut butter contaminant five years ago when Peter Pan, owned by ConAgra, turned out to be responsible for a national outbreak of Salmonella Tennessee.
Two years later, Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) was found responsible for a Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak that tounched 46 states and Canada. Now defunct, PCA then made King Nut peanut butter and supplied peanut butter and peanut paste to manufacturers of 3,900 other products.
More than 700 confirmed cases were recorded for both the peanut butter-related Salmonella Tennessee and Salmonella Typhimurium outbreaks. Nine people died in the PCA outbreak.
