Personal Injury Law

Deaths Linked To Salmonella in Peanut Butter

The salmonella outbreak across the nation has been potentially traced to peanut butter. A recall has been issued for peanut butter distributed by King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio. The peanut butter was supplied only through food service providers and was not sold directly to consumers. King Nut has challenged the recall contending it could not be the source of the nationwide outbreak since it distributes to only seven states.

Three deaths have been attributed the outbreak. These occurred in Virginia and Minnesota. Two adults in Virginia had salmonella when they died, though it has not been established that the salmonella is what killed them. Minnesota health officials reported that an elderly woman had salmonella poisoning at the time of her death.

Health officials are urging nursing homes, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants to toss out specific containers of peanut butter linked to a salmonella outbreak in 43 states and possibly to the deaths of three people.

Minnesota health officials announced Monday they had found a match between samples from a King Nut container and the strains of salmonella bacteria making people sick across the country. The outbreak has sickened more than 400 people including Georgia residents.

Minnesota officials said last week they had found salmonella bacteria in a 5-pound package of King Nut peanut butter at a nursing facility. Officials tested the bacteria over the weekend and found a genetic match with the bacterial strain that has led to 30 illnesses in Minnesota and others across the country.

King Nut Companies on Sunday asked its customers to stop using peanut butter under its King Nut and Parnell's Pride brands with a lot code that begins with the numeral "8."
The peanut butter King Nut distributed was manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America, a Virginia company.

The CDC on Monday raised the number of confirmed cases to 410, from 399 as of Friday, and Mississippi became the 43rd state to report a case. All the illnesses began between Sept. 15 and Jan. 7, but most of the people became sick after Oct. 1.

The recent outbreak is occurring almost two years after ConAgra recalled its Peter Pan brand peanut butter, which was eventually linked to at least 625 salmonella cases in 47 states.

Full post as published by Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog on January 13, 2009 (boomark / email).