Salmonella and Peanut Butter…Again?

Maybe this hasn’t made it to your ears, but there’s a little salmonella outbreak happening again, and 42 states are affected. California has had 55 reported cases of this since the holidays, and the AP reports that some food service peanut butter’s been linked to the case. What’s this mean for you? The jars of Skippy you buy from the grocery store should be ok, but if you eat at a cafeteria that makes its own peanut butter cookies, I’d stay away for a little bit.

The Food Safety & Inspection Service has a good FAQ about what salmonella actually is, and how you can recognize symptoms, or minimize catching it by doing things like:

  • Washing your hands (especially after handling reptiles, go figure),
  • Wash your fruits & vegetables (of any dirt or who knows what salmonella-infected liquid that could’ve come in contact with it)
  • Cook your raw animal-origin food (meat, poultry, eggs) well. Bummer if you like medium-rare steaks, like me
How do people get it? This is a bit TMI but here goes: “Salmonella is usually transmitted to humans by eating foods contaminated with animal feces.” Lovely.
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