Peanut Butter Recalls
By: Julie Musgrave
Updated: January 20, 2009
A salmonella outbreak has peanut manufacturers recalling products nationwide. So far six people in the state of Texas have been infected, fortunately there have been no cases here in Lubbock. But folks at the Lubbock Health Department say we still need to be careful.
Now, jar peanut butter is okay and is completely safe to eat. It's the peanut butter versions of crackers that are the problem.
The salmonella strain stems from a factory out of Georgia, and none of the infected peanut products were shipped to commercial retailers, it's mostly in bulk packaging for institutional and food service industry use.
Where Texas comes in -- and where you need to be careful -- is with peanut butter crackers.
Keebler and Austin brands have put what they call a 'precautionary hold' on their products, meaning they haven't found a contaminated product yet but several cases have reported that the product was consumed.
United has completely removed these products from their shelves, but if you see these brands at any other store, health officials urge you not to not buy them.
"There is some concern about products manufactured in that company, but no other nuts, peanut butter that you buy in the grocery store, in a jar in the grocery store, is not a problem. Nothing like that has been implicated. They're just being cautious about the Keebler stuff, because they were manufactured in a plant that manufactured that peanut butter."
Davis tells us while Lubbock is safe from any peanut butter scares, there have been four cases of salmonella from reptiles...
So if you keep them as pets, make sure you wash your hands thoroughly after handling them.


