According to the NBC, there have been reports of four illnesses that may be related to the nut butters it has produced. The affected products were sold under the brand names ‘Arrowhead Mills’ peanut butters and ‘MaraNatha’ almond butters and peanut butters. In addition, also being recalled are some lots of private label almond butter from grocers Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Kroger and Safeway.
Boston.com states that the Trader Joe's items in the recall include:
Raw Crunchy Unsalted Almond Butter (SKU 91989, use by Dec. 28, 2014 through June 18, 2015)
Raw Creamy Unsalted Almond Butter (SKU 56995, use by Dec. 27, 2014 through July 18, 2015).
A full list of the affected products can be
found here.
The recall is quite extensive and in total 45 different production lots are affected. The various nut butters were sold in Canada, the Dominican Republic, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates as well as the U.S.
The reason for the recall comes after routine U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) testing. The FDA testing detected the presence of
Salmonella bacteria.
Typical symptoms of salmonella infection are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. These symptoms generally develop within one to three days of exposure to the bacterium and may last for up to a week.
While anyone can become ill from exposure to salmonella, health officials say the risk of infection is particularly high for children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems.
In related news, an outbreak of
Salmonella is occurring in England, where the bacterial contamination has been linked to imported egg products from France.
