FDA assures public it’s almost, nearly, pretty sure salmonella caused by peanut butter

The FDA botched the last big outbreak of salmonella when it issued a huge warning to avoid tomatoes based on the fact that people who’d eaten salsa were getting sick. Turns out salsa was indeed making people sick — but that’s because the jalapenos in it were alive with the salmonella bacteria, not tomatoes. The tomato industry was nearly crippled and people continued to get sick off of jalapenos.

The FDA is well on its way to messing up another food supply with this latest salmonella outbreak in Minnesota. The agency has done a good job locating a strain of salmonella in some tainted peanut butter. The peanut butter that’s being recalled is for institutions only, but consumer manufacturers like Kellogg’s are playing safe and issuing a stop-hold. (One level below an actual recall.) Charles Ferruzza called Kellogg’s in an earlier Fat City post to get some more detail and the company said it was taking “precautionary measures.”

While there is salmonella in the peanut butter, the peanut butter cannot be the cause of all the outbreaks.