"Peter Pan" news and stories

I've learned three things about making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches over the years:

1. Creamy and chunky are both great.
2. They taste terrible with a Diet Coke.
2. Never use Wonder Bread. It tears too easily.

November is National Peanut Butter Lover's Month. Here's a bunch of facts about peanut butter (did you know the average kid will eat 1500 PB&J sandwiches by the time they graduate high school?). Skippy has a bunch of crafts and games for the kids, while Jif has some interesting peanut butter recipes, including Peanut Butter Muffins and Chicken Peanut Mole.

Also check out PeanutButterLovers.com, a site for people who...well, you know, love peanut butter.

Even with all the media surrounding peanut allergies in kids, peanut butter still remains tops when it comes to sandwiches. Newsday put the eternal question to the test with 11 kids and got the answer to "What is the best peanut butter?" They tested 16 brands of peanut butter including store brands like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, and also controlled for crunchy and creamy preferences by testing them separately.

So who won out? As much as parents would love to have kids prefer natural peanut butters, national brand Skippy took first place in both creamy and crunchy categories, followed closely by Peter Pan and then Jif. For the full results, and more information about peanut butter in general, check out the Newsday article.

The New York Times reports (as did The CBS Evening News last night) that a House subcommittee is going to meet today to investigate not only all of the food recalls and contaminations of the past couple of years but to examine just how the FDA operates in general.

Evidence has come to light that the FDA may have been aware of the spinach and peanut butter contamination several months before the sicknesses occurred but didn't do as much as they could have. One problem is the resources. As CBS said, even though the FDA is responsible for 80% of the food in this country and the USDA for the other twenty, for some reason, the USDA has three times as many inspectors. The FDA has also been busier with the "D" part of their name in recent years.

ConAgra has now been dealing with their peanut butter problems, which extend back several years, for a few weeks, doing damage control and dealing with consumer complaints/concerns. Even after all that they've been through, the company has vowed that they will clean up the Georgia factory that produced the salmonella-contaminated spreads and will bring Peter Pan back, safely, to consumers.

But this begs the question of whether or not it is worth the effort on ConAgra's part to do so. The recall of tainted peanut butter stretches back to 2004 - is that long enough to have permanently shaken consumer confidence in the brand?

Peter Pan is the number three selling peanut butter brand in the US, after Skippy and Jif. Over the past four weeks, more than 400 people in 44 states reportedly became sick as a result of eating their peanut butter, although ConAgra itself has recorded over 1.4 million calls about the recall and from consumers who think that they might have become ill after eating it. The recall is estimated to cost $50-$60 million in the first four months of this year alone. Peter Pan brand peanut butter typically does about $150 million in annual sales.

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just issued a salmonella warning for some batches of Peter Pan peanut butter after linking more than 280 cases of food poisoning in 39 different states to the product. Con Agra, the manufacturer of the peanut butter, has already called for a recall, but unlike with the fresh veggies that were affected by an E. coli contamination last fall, the long shelf-life of peanut butter means that people who fail to check their jars at home could face problems at a later time. Fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps are common effects, but for those with autoimmune disorders or other serious medical conditions, salmonella infections can be life threatening.

All of the peanut butters in question are under the brand names "Peter Pan" and "Great Value" and bear the number 2111 at the beginning of the product code on the lid. They were all made at a single factory in Georgia. The first consumer that was affected by the peanut butter-borne salmonella became ill in August of 2006, so if you bought your peanut butter (assuming it's Peter Pan brand) around that time, or even a bit before, it is wise to throw it out and start with something fresh.

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