Tainted lot of peanut butter reaches area; no salmonella cases reported in Louisiana

The salmonella outbreak that has infected 288 people in 39 states has not infected anyone in Louisiana, according to Bob Johannessen of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. “There has been no salmonella cases in Louisiana. Also we have a disease surveillance system in place in Louisiana that allows medical personnel to input data that would alert epidemiologists if we had a potential outbreak occurring.”

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is coordinating the recall of the affected foods, according to Johannessen.

Mike Deroche, of the Terrebonne Parish’s Department of Homeland Security said, “ There are approximately 300 cases of peanut butter affected. Of the 288 reported cases of salmonella associated with this contaminated peanut butter, approximately 20 percent of those people have required hospitalization.”

The cases of tainted peanut butter in Louisiana grocery stores were pulled from the shelves Thursday, including jars in the Tri-parish area.

ConAgra foods, the distributor of the contaminated peanut butter, released a statement on its Web site saying, “We advise consumers to destroy Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter with the lot number 2111.”

Local grocers wasted no time pulling the product from shelves, even if it didn’t bear the “2111” lot number.

Michelle Boudloche, of Cannata’s Family Markets, was among those to pull the peanut butter from its stock. “We received it, pulled it all off of the shelves. We haven’t had any customer complaints since we pulled it,” she said.

ConAgra spokesman Chris Kircher said on the company’s Web site, “We are working closely with the FDA to better understand it’s concerns, and we will take whatever additional measures are needed to ensure the safety, quality, and wholesomeness of our products.”

For a full refund, consumers are asked to send the product lid, their name and return mailing address to ConAgra Foods, P.O. Box 3768, Omaha, NE 68103.