Food Contamination And Poisoning

Two brands of peanut butter have been recalled after an open container tested positive for salmonella bacteria. King Nut Cos., based in Solon, said in a statement that it had asked customers to stop distributing all peanut butter under its King Nut and Parnell's Pride brands with a lot code that begins with the numeral 8. The peanut butter was not sold directly to consumers. It was distributed through food service providers in Ohio, Michigan, North Dakota, Minnesota, Arizona, Idaho, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Florida.

Cereal and snack maker Kellogg Co. asked stores around the country to remove a variety of peanut butter crackers sold under the Austin and Keebler brands after a recall by a supplier involved in a salmonella investigation. Virginia-based Peanut Corp. of America is the supplier that recalled some of its peanut butter because of possible salmonella contamination. Battle Creek, Mich.-based Kellogg said in a statement that it had not received complaints or found a cause for concern. A national salmonella outbreak has sickened more than 430 people in 43 states.

Kellogg Co. is recalling 16 products containing peanut butter, citing possible salmonella contamination, the company said. The recall includes Austin and Keebler brand Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, as well as snack-size packs of Famous Amos Peanut Butter Cookies and Keebler Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter Cookies. Information is at www.kelloggcompany.com. Federal officials confirmed salmonella contamination at a Georgia facility that ships peanut products to 85 food companies.

The city school district late this week recalled a chicken dish that contained possibly tainted peanut bits. Asian Thai Chicken included nuts processed in a Georgia plant believed responsible for shipping tainted peanuts throughout the nation. The dish was recalled from 188 schools Thursday; it was last served Jan. 16 and 30, according to the Los Angeles Unified School District. No illnesses have been reported. -- Jason Song

Private lab tests show there may have been salmonella at a second plant operated by the peanut company at the center of a national outbreak, but the potentially tainted products were not sent to consumers, Texas health officials said. The Peanut Corp. of America plant in Plainview had operated unlicensed and uninspected for nearly four years. Although no recalls related to the plant were announced, federal inspectors have begun looking for any signs of problems similar to those found at a company plant in Georgia identified as the source of the salmonella outbreak.

Six salmonella cases in Colorado have been linked to tainted products from a shuttered Texas plant owned by the peanut processing company at the focal point of a national outbreak of the disease. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment linked the cases to the Plainview Peanut Co. in the Texas Panhandle, reported the Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Ore. The victims were between the ages of 2 and 60, and one was hospitalized. The Plainview plant, owned by Peanut Corp.

Tests show ground peanuts at a Texas plant were contaminated with the same strain of salmonella that has sickened hundreds of people across the nation, state health officials said Wednesday. The peanut meal was tested at the Plainview plant Feb. 12 after the facility had voluntarily shut down, said Doug McBride, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. The Texas plant is the second facility operated by the embattled Peanut Corp. of America to test positive for salmonella.

E. coli food poisoning claimed its 11th victim, a 59-year-old woman in western Japan who died of respiratory failure. The woman had been suffering from hemolytic uremic syndrome, a complication resulting from the E. coli 0157 bacterial infection that causes kidney damage. About 9,500 people have been sickened by the outbreak in various parts of Japan, and about 300 remain hospitalized, the Health and Welfare Ministry said. The 11th victim died in Yamatotakada, about 20 miles southeast of Osaka.

Raw oysters contaminated with a potentially deadly strain of bacteria have recently claimed the lives of four people in Los Angeles, prompting officials to take emergency actions aimed at protecting the Latino communities that have been most severely affected. State officials said this week they will step up testing of oysters from the Gulf of Mexico, which have been linked to the fatal cases.

A food poisoning mystery that investigators have yet to solve claimed its 10th fatality Friday, a 12-year-old girl who died a month after eating a contaminated school lunch. Despite almost three months of investigation, health officials cannot pinpoint the source of the elusive, virulent 0157 E. coli bacteria that has sickened more than 6,000 children in the Osaka suburb of Sakai and caused smaller outbreaks across Japan. Farmers have begun dumping fresh produce that consumers are afraid to eat.