Peanut butter and current Salmonella outbreak

Another salmonella outbreak has spread across 42 states over the past weeks and downed nearly 400 Americans, but the cause is not yet known, according to U.S. health officials Friday. Unless the source is identified soon, more cases can be expected.

This outbreak has been linked to Salmonella typhimurium, the most common species among at least 2,500 known species of the salmonella bacteria in the country. This type of salmonella can often be found in uncooked meat products and eggs.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the first incidences of people getting ill occurred in September, although it took several weeks for a sufficient number of cases to be reported before health officials could officially declare an outbreak.

Despite several weeks of investigation, the CDC could not find the cause, although they suspected a widely distributed food item, perhaps prepared packaged food, especially because of the dispersed distribution of cases.

From September 3 to December 29, 2008, a total of 372 people were reported to have been sickened, particularly after October 1. Nearly 2 of 10 cases were serious enough to require hospitalization. As of January 9, 2009, 399 cases have been reported.

Last April, a salmonella outbreak sickened about 1,400 Americans with 300 cases requiring hospitalization. Tomatoes were initially blamed. It took nearly two months for authorities to trace the Salmonella saintpaul outbreak to jalapeno and Serrano peppers.

For the current outbreak, an indication may have been found in Minnesota where state health officials are looking at a peanut butter product. The King Nut creamy peanut butter is widely used in schools, nursing homes and long-term care facilities, hospitals and restaurants. The sample that tested positive for salmonella came from a 5-pound container of the brand. The manufacturer says its 5-pound tubs are actually produced by another supplier based in Virginia.

Officials are trying to match DNA fingerprints of the salmonella in the peanut butter product with the strain said to have caused the more widespread outbreak. The DNA fingerprint testing will be finished about Monday or Tuesday.

Minnesota has 30 confirmed cases of salmonella. All of them reported having eaten some type of peanut butter. According to the CDC, the largest number of cases occurred in California, 55, followed by Ohio with 53, Massachusetts, 39, Minnesota’s 30, and Michigan, 20. Incidences were also reported in Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Arizona and several other states.

For more information about salmonella symptoms, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Safety Tips:

* Cook your food well. Most of the recent outbreaks have come from raw or inadequately cooked food.

* Clean even organic food thoroughly. Standards for organic food may not adequately address bacterial contamination. Remember, many organic foods now sold in the U.S. market come from foreign countries.

* Keep your kitchen very clean. Separate raw chicken and other meat products from fresh food that won’t be cooked. Thoroughly wash utensils and cutting boards with a bleach rinse or hot soapy water.