Friday, January 23, 2009

More on the Salmonella Peanut Butter Probe

Here's an interesting excerpt from a recent article on CNN.com about the salmonella outbreak affecting peanut butter products...even dog treats! (I just discovered the dog treats angle last week...I'm a little behind on that one.) My brother sent me this link. Thanks, buddy!

"Anne Muñoz-Furlong, founder of Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, said people might "walk away with a feeling of knowing what it's like to have a food allergy" because of the salmonella outbreak.

Because of the pervasiveness of peanuts in the food supply, people with peanut allergies read labels "very carefully, so there's not even traces of peanuts in certain foods," Gidus said. They have to inquire about sauce in restaurant dishes and read ingredients for every snack.

"This shows that it sounds very easy to avoid peanuts, but it's not so easy," Muñoz-Furlong said. "It's in so many different places you wouldn't expect it. That's what makes it so challenging."

Peanut butter lover Adam Leidhecker checked online to make sure his food is safe. He combed through his cupboard and found a few peanut butter cookies and crackers and threw them away if those companies hadn't released a statement stating their products were safe.

"The companies not affected need to take an extra step to say that they're on top of it," said Leidhecker, a Williamsport, Pennsylvania, resident.

He said he'll continue to eat his daily creamy peanut butter sandwich and slather peanut butter on a treat for his 2-year-old dog, Lola, after checking the products online.

"I'm not going to go without peanut butter," he said.

Check out this last line, everybody. That's pretty much what we all would have expected, right? :) Even with the threat of severe diarrhea, stomach cramps and vomiting (and possible hospitalization)--the public is clinging to its peanut butter!

What do you all think is behind the sometimes irrationally strong emotional tie to peanut butter? Childhood memories? Easy to swallow? No need to chew if you have no teeth? Any ideas--I'd love to hear them.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Gee, people are so strange! It's hard to say what drives this devotion to peanut butter. I guess it is partly cultural because my blogger friends up in Canada tell me it's just not the same there with regard to peanut butter. I also think it's just that people (and maybe it's Americans) really don't like to be told we can't do something. I gotta say, I don't miss my PB one bit. We have plenty of other tasty foods to enjoy!

Thankfully, this is one salmonella outbreak we PA families don't have to worry about!

Jenny said...

I agree with you, Jennifer B. Americans don't like to be told they can't have something! You said it.

I always enjoyed PB and ate it before my daughter was diagnosed but I never had anything like the "love" for it I witness since peanut allergies became widespread. I love chocolate but I'd give it a rest if there were a salmonella outbreak!

Jake said...

Plus, you know, peanut butter tastes awesome.

I truly hope they come up with a cure not only so that I don't have to worry about my kid going into anaphlyactic shock, but also so he can get to experience how f-ing GOOD warm PB on toast tastes.

He probably doesn't remember how delicious the peanut butter cookie was that the three-yr-old girl slipped him when he was 14 months old on the day we spent in the emergency room...