BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As part of FDA's ongoing investigation of a peanut paste supplier, Peanut Corporation of America, regretfully, the FDA has advised Kellogg Company that Salmonella was found in one package of Austin® Quality Foods Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter. This product had previously been recalled by Kellogg, in one of a series of industry recalls relating to Peanut Corporation of America's recall of peanut-based ingredients. For consumer questions contact Consumer Service'We apologize to our consumers and customers, and we can't emphasize enough our disappointment and deep regret about this situation,' said David Mackay, president and CEO, Kellogg Company. 'The food industry upholds certain operating standards and we are proud that we exceed these standards in our facilities. Events of the last week suggest there was a breach in this supplier's process that is unacceptable to Kellogg, our customers and our consumers.' Mackay continued, 'Based on our learnings from this experience and consistent with our 100-year commitment to quality and food safety, Kellogg will evaluate its processes to ensure we take necessary actions to reassure consumers and rebuild confidence in these products.' On January 14, customers and consumers were advised to hold certain products pending more information on the Peanut Corporation of America situation, and recalled those products on January 16. Kellogg has taken immediate steps to ensure prompt execution of its recall including engaging the assistance of a third party retrieval company to visit convenience, drug and other specialty outlets to remove product both from shelves and inventory. In addition, we have activated our sales force of several thousand employees to assist in these retrieval efforts. We continue to work closely with all of our customers who have been extremely supportive during this process. We will also be contacting foodservice operators who may have received product. Smaller foodservice and vend operators who may have affected product may call Kellogg at 877-869-5633. Consumers who have purchased the recalled products are urged to destroy the product. Consumers with questions or who would like a refund may contact the Kellogg Consumer Response Center at 877-869-5633. Consumers with questions or concerns about their health should contact their doctor. Products impacted by the previously-announced Kellogg Company recall were produced on or after July 1, 2008, including: Austin® Quality Foods Cheese Crackers with Peanut Butter - all sizes Austin® Quality Foods Cheese & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers - all sizes Austin® Quality Foods Mega Stuffed Cheese Crackers with Peanut Butter - all sizes Austin® Quality Foods PB & J Cracker Sandwiches - all sizes Austin® Quality Foods Super Snack Pack Sandwich Crackers Austin® Quality Foods Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers - all sizes Austin® Quality Foods Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter - all sizes Austin® Quality Foods Reduced Fat Cheese & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers Austin® Quality Foods Reduced Fat Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers Kellogg Company does not use Peanut Corporation of America ingredients in any Kellogg products outside of those already recalled as listed above. For a list of various company recalls and for more information on FDA's ongoing investigation, consumers should visit FDA's Web site at www.fda.gov. Consumers are also reminded to heed FDA's January 17 guidance to avoid eating all products made with peanut butter until they have more information on the cause of the Salmonella outbreak. SOURCE: Kellogg Company Web site: http://www.kelloggcompany.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/483375.html / msnbc.com
Recall warnings have been issued for more than 3,400 peanut products, including Austin Quality Foods peanut butter crackers, but health officials are concerned the message hasn't reached some consumers. The foods have been linked to an ongoing outbreak of salmonella poisoning.
updated 3/13/2009 8:13:55 AM ET2009-03-13T12:13:55
Bill Rector of Blaine, Wash., didn’t know about a nationwide recall of peanut butter products until he and his 3-year-old daughter already had been hospitalized with salmonella poisoning. “That's the first we heard of it,” he said. But that was back in January, when the 32-year-old meat cutter said he and his toddler were sickened by Austin Quality Foods crackers linked to a still-widening food poisoning outbreak. Since then, word has spread, he said. Or so you’d think. Nearly two months after the initial recalls, and despite massive publicity about the salmonella scare linked to faulty practices at a Georgia peanut processing plant, federal health officials are worried that some consumers still haven’t gotten the message. Half of new cases tied to crackers That includes illnesses that began as recently as Feb. 13, long after retailers and health officials thought they’d issued adequate warnings. “That’s somebody who got sick even after the news got out,” said Dr. Robert Tauxe, chief of the CDC’s foodborne disease program. “Not everybody gets the message — and not everybody acts on it.” Courtesy of Shannon Rector
The Rector family of Blaine, Wash., accumulated $30,000 in hospital and doctor bills in January, after Bill Rector, 32, and his youngest daughter, Payton, 3, contracted salmonella poisoning, allegedly after eating tainted peanut butter crackers. Also shown are Shannon Rector, 29, and daughters Krimson, 11, and Abigail, 9.
The crackers are only a fraction of more than 3,400 products recalled for fear of contamination linked to food processing plants run by the now-bankrupt Peanut Corp. of America. Still, they account for the largest share of the food poisoning cases that have sickened 684 people in 46 states and Canada and contributed to nine deaths. That’s likely because it appears that the most virulent doses of salmonella bacteria showed up in the Austin and Keebler crackers and in King Nut brand peanut butter that went to certain health care facilities, said Ernest Julian, who heads an industry workgroup for the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response. 'The biggest slug of contamination was associated with those products,' he said. But part of the problem also may be that many of the recalled foods can last a while and families might not have checked their cupboards, Tauxe said.
A memo to military families from Kellogg’s pegs the shelf life of the Austin Toasty Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers and Cheese and Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers Crackers at 240 days, with a product safety guideline that extends to 450 days. “I’m worried that they still have them,” Tauxe said. Massive recalls sparking ‘mass confusion’ “It’s creating mass confusion in the food industry,” Julian said. “How do you tell the good stuff from the bad stuff?” Spot-checks of retailers suggest that some stores may not have pulled all recalled products, or that they may have put new shipments of food on shelves, even though the new products also were included in the recall, Julian said. A spokeswoman for Kellogg’s said the firm was the first to recall products and that it has aggressively worked with its employees and a third-party vendor to warn consumers about the problem and to remove potentially tainted foods from public reach. “The vast majority of Austin and Keebler peanut butter crackers are now off shelf,” Kris Charles, a company spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. The federal Food and Drug Administration requests, but does not require, proof that recalled products have been destroyed, a spokesman said. Currently, there is no system to monitor recalls, Julian noted. Retailers and health officials are continuing to urge consumers to check the FDA’s recall list frequently and to avoid the products identified. Salmonella infections are usually mild, but they can be severe and, in some cases, life threatening. Bill for salmonella treatment? $30,000 SalmonellaSalmonella poisoning linked to the outbreak was confirmed in Payton, who had to be hospitalized for days. Bill Rector’s illness was suspected, but not confirmed, he said. Bills for their care have totaled more than $30,000, Rector said, with about $6,000 not covered by health insurance. Because Rector works with food, he also lost two weeks of work until state health officials cleared him to return. Rector and his wife, Shannon, 29, have sought the services of Bill Marler, a Seattle lawyer who specializes in food safety cases. They hope to recover the costs of medical expenses. “It’s pretty scary,” said Rector. “I wasn’t worried for myself as much as for my daughter.” A salmonella infection in a toddler can be severe, even life threatening, Rector noted. And news that PCA officials knew the peanut products were contaminated and released them anyway just makes him mad. “It’s a pretty bad situation,” he said. “It’s pretty wrong.” © 2013 msnbc.com Reprints Days after the snack food company Mondelez International recalled some of its Ritz cracker products after a whey powder supplier identified a potential salmonella risk, the company announced that two people had fallen ill after eating the crackers in question. Kimberly Fontes, a Mondelez spokeswoman, said on Tuesday that the company was in contact with both of the people, who reported their illnesses after the recall was announced on Saturday. Mondelez was one of several food companies to issue recalls based on potential contamination from whey powder provided by Associated Milk Producers Inc., a dairy company based in New Ulm, Minn. On Monday, Flowers Foods recalled some of its swiss rolls and bread products, and on Tuesday, Pepperidge Farm announced a recall of several of its Goldfish cracker varieties in the United States. The companies were not aware of any related illnesses as of Tuesday, according to the United States Food and Drug Administration. The F.D.A. said that Hungry Man products, made by Pinnacle Foods, may also contain the whey powder, and that the United States Department of Agriculture was working with the company on a public health alert. “As there are likely other food products made by other manufacturers that also use this common ingredient, there may be other recalls initiated in the coming days,” the F.D.A. said in a statement. Download episodes of the office. The Ritz recall was limited to the United States, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, according to a news release. Free office download for windows 10. It was “being conducted with the knowledge of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” the release said. The recalled Mondelez products included some of the company’s most popular varieties, including Ritz Bits Cheese, Ritz cheese cracker sandwiches and Ritz bacon cracker sandwiches. A full list of the recalled products is available here. Salmonella can result in diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps, typically for a duration of four to seven days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The C.D.C. estimates the bacteria causes 1.2 million illnesses, 23,000 hospitalizations and 450 deaths in the United States each year. There have been several recalls related to salmonella this year. An outbreak linked to Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal sickened 100 people and hospitalized 30 in June and July, according to the C.D.C., and dozens of people fell ill from pre-cut watermelon in June. Romaine lettuce contaminated with E. coli was responsible for at least five deaths, with people becoming sick in 36 states. Randy Worobo, a professor of food microbiology at Cornell University, said Mondelez’s announcing a recall before anyone had reported an illness suggested the company was being proactive, reducing the chances its consumers might get sick. “Ritz was being on the very cautious side,” he said. Tainted food, or even the possibility thereof, presents a bevy of challenges to businesses, on top of the immediate expenses of recalling a product. Chipotle, for one, took a long-lasting hit to public confidence after a series of contaminations in 2015. How does food typically become contaminated?It is usually some form of human or mechanical error, sometimes at the companies that supply ingredients to the big-name food manufacturers. Mr. Worobo said it can often be the result of a breach in cleaning or sanitation protocol. It could also derive from inadequate processing, like cooking at too low a temperature because of a faulty thermometer. How are issues detected?Companies often send their finished product away for testing, but it is far from a guarantee that such testing would identify contaminations. “Imagine you have a jar full of M&M’s, and they’re all the same color, and you have one that’s not the same color,” Mr. Worobo said. “If you take a handful out of that container, what are the chances of getting the one colored M&M? Low, right?” If testing does not reveal contamination, the company might not become aware until consumers get sick. Once there’s a cluster of people who fall ill, officials can determine what ingredient the patients had in common. It might seem as if food is contaminated more often than it was years or decades ago, based on how many times widespread recalls make news. But Mr. Worobo said it is not because of a decrease in food safety standards — it is just easier to detect problems than it used to be because of better technology. What is the risk if I ate the product?If you have purchased one of the tainted food items, it is not a sure thing you would fall sick. But there is no uniform way of knowing exactly how likely it would be. The contamination could have affected a large or minuscule percentage of the products on shelves. “Not every leaf of the romaine lettuce is going to be contaminated,” Mr. Worobo said, referring to an E. coli outbreak that was tied to the deaths of five people this year. Your body’s response could also depend partly on the health of your immune system, with children and the elderly more susceptible, Mr. Worobo said. How can I know what has been recalled?The F.D.A. has a Twitter account dedicated to recall announcements, and keeps a running tally here. While not every recall gets a news release, the F.D.A. seeks publicity for recalls “only when it believes the public needs to be alerted to a serious hazard,” according to a page last updated on its website in late 2017. NEW YORK -- Mondelez International is issuing a voluntary recall for some of its Ritz Crackers products because of a potential risk of salmonella. The Hanover, New Jersey-based company says it's recalling 16 varieties of Ritz Cracker Sandwiches and Ritz Bits products in the U.S. The products contain whey powder, which its supplier has recalled due to the potential presence of salmonella. Mondelez says no illnesses have been reported yet. Symptoms of salmonella include fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. It can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in the young, elderly or those with weakened immune systems. Consumers who have these products should not eat them, and should discard them. Any questions should be directed to the company at 1-844-366-1171. The microorganism can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy people infected with salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections, endocarditis and arthritis. What products are affected?The following products are included in the recall, followed by their UPC number and Best When Used By Dates:
For consumer questions contact Consumer ServiceBATTLE CREEK, Mich., Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Kellogg Company today announced a voluntary recall of certain Austin® and Keebler® branded Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers and select snack-size packs of Famous Amos® Peanut Butter Cookies and Keebler® Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter Cookies because the products have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. No other products are involved in this recall. (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090116/CLF082 ) On January 14, Kellogg announced a precautionary hold on the sandwich crackers while FDA and other authorities investigated Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), one of Kellogg's peanut paste suppliers for these crackers. PCA has expanded their earlier recall to include peanut paste and peanut butter, prompting Kellogg to immediately announce this recall and to include the above- mentioned cookie and cracker products. 'The actions we are taking today are in keeping with our more than 100- year commitment to providing consumers with safe, high-quality products,' said David Mackay, president and CEO, Kellogg Company. 'We apologize for this unfortunate situation.' Austin Crackers RecallSalmonella is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis. For more information on Salmonella, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Website at http://www.cdc.gov. Consumers who have purchased the recalled products are urged to destroy the product. Consumers with questions or who would like a refund may contact the Kellogg Consumer Response Center at 877-869-5633. Consumers with questions or concerns about their health should contact their doctor. Products impacted by the recall were produced on or after July 1, 2008, including: With 2007 sales of nearly $12 billion, Kellogg Company is the world's leading producer of cereal and a leading producer of convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, frozen waffles, and meat alternatives. The company's brands include Kellogg's, Keebler, Pop-Tarts, Eggo, Cheez-It, Club, Nutri-Grain, Rice Krispies, Special K, All-Bran, Mini-Wheats, Morningstar Farms, Famous Amos, Ready Crust and Kashi. Kellogg products are manufactured in 19 countries and marketed in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information, visit the Kellogg Company Web site at www.kelloggcompany.com. Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090116/CLF082 SOURCE: Kellogg Company Austin Zoo Animal Crackers RecallWeb site: http://www.kelloggcompany.com/ Comments are closed.
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