When I wrote yesterday about the recall of peanut butter due to salmonella poisoning (which is now considered possibly responsible for five adults' deaths), I worried that the "complex" and "widespread" description of the outbreak by the CDC could mean that, not only was the institutional peanut butter spread to thousands of school and corporate cafeterias, but also, the peanut butter might be in other products. Today's move by Kellogg (NYSE: K) to voluntarily pull Keebler and Austin peanut butter crackers off retailers' shelves says to me that we could have no idea how "complex" and "widespread" this disease might be. Kellogg will be investigating to see if its products include tainted peanut butter.
Kellogg products included in the investigation include peanut butter sandwich crackers, peanut butter and jelly sandwich crackers, cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers, and peanut butter-chocolate sandwich crackers. Kellogg stock was down about 60 cents on the news, to $42.07 as of 1 p.m.
'Green' moms are calling the move by Kellogg a good one; but, as it's only removing items from shelves and not a recall (and is only one company when it could be many more which are affected by the tainted peanut butter), perhaps it doesn't go far enough. Part of the complication: Austin peanut butter crackers are sold in vending machines and small, independent convenience stores, among other places, making their removal fraught with mechanical and communication problems. And my money says more companies will soon follow suit and pull peanut butter off the market.
Kellogg pulls crackers as peanut butter recall hits manufacturers
Posted Jan 15th 2009 3:00PM by Sarah Gilbert
Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Scandals, Kellogg Co (K)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-15-2009 @ 4:01PM
Vic said...
I just posted a comment about this feature at http://news.savvynewsletters.com/shopping/kelloggs-peanut-butter-cracker-recall/, and I think Kelloggs is right on.
Vic
1-15-2009 @ 4:11PM
hsr0601 said...
Are the 5 more salmonella cases in Michigan linked to the peanut butter snacks ?
1-15-2009 @ 9:42PM
Sailingwindward said...
The problem is Kellog, Nestles and all these others are using food products imported from China that are not only substandard but also contaminated, the US food labeling laws allows them to label US because it's packaged here, the only one who suffers is the uninformed US consumer.