What Peanut Butter Is Being Recalled?

The Colorado Department of health advising Colorado consumers that a major nut manufacturer is pulling peanut butter and other products off the shelves due to a Salmonella scare. The recall includes Colorado although no contamination has been found here.

Sunland, Inc. of Portales, N.M. is recalling all almond butter, peanut butter, cashew butter, tahini and roasted blanched peanut products manufactured between May 1 and Sept. 24th, 2012 due to possible Salmonella contamination.

Salmonella is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and those with weakened immune systems. Healthy people infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, Salmonella can get into the bloodstream of infected individuals and produce more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis.

There have been 29 reported illnesses in 18 states, including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

The recalled products were distributed nationally to many large supermarket chains and were available for purchase on the Internet. Affected products can be identified by the UPC code located on the side of the jar’s label below the bar code. This recall applies to the products with Best-If-Used-By dates between May 1, 2013 and September 24, 2013.

Consumers who have purchased Sunland's almond butter, peanut butter, cashew butter, tahini and roasted blanched peanut products should visit the company’s website, to see if the item they have is among the more than 50 different products/packages being recalled. People with the identified products are urged to discard the product immediately.

Consumers can contact the company at 1-866-837-1018, 24 hours a day, for information on the recall. In addition, a consumer services representative is available Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mountain Time at 575-356-6638.