Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Starbucks and the PB Salmonella Scare

Starbucks just pulled all of its peanut products due to the salmonella scare. Read about it here.

I wonder how the customers will like it? I can't serve my daughter the baked goods there (much to her chagrin--some of them are pretty good) but I don't remember a lot of peanut baked stuff. Mostly it's the granola bars, energy bars, etc. that are getting pulled.

Still, anything that limits peanut residue in a restaurant or cafe gets my stamp of approval.

This peanut butter/salmonella thing is really getting a lot of press this time around, more so than the scare that occured with PB and salmonella a few years ago. Could it be that food allergy/sensitivity sufferers have had an overall effect on how we look at general food safety? That would be a nice side effect to our daily challenges.

Having to give up peanut butter due to the threat of disease may force more people than ever before to try sunbutter, soybutter and other peanut butter substitutes. Wonder if these new habits will stick? (No pun intended. :))

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello from Austin, Texas! I just lOVE your blog info. I have three kiddos and our youngest (6 yrs) is SEVERLY peanut-nut allergy as well as egg too.
I find this interesting about Starbucks and also feel SO sad for the lady that bought the parfait... but, duh, granola??? You don't think those places are riddled with nuts?
I am currently working with our Health comittee for our school district on proposing that our school goes Peanut/Nut free. So a LOT of work is going in to this.
This is how I ran across your blog.
Hope to stay in touch with you.
Thanks
Sherry

Jenny said...

Hi Sherry,

You may find helpful info regarding peanut policies in schools in the following spots (you may already know about some of them):
www.foodallergy.org (FAAN website)

Food Allergies for Dummies by Dr. Robert Wood

Also, check my resources to the right of my blog.

Even if you can't convince them to go "nut-free" (I tried this and failed) you CAN get yout school to implement a protocol for dealing with food allergies that will make things a lot safer for you and your family.

Good luck and let us know what happens!

Best,
Jenny

Anonymous said...

HI! I wanted to comment on the recent allergy attack a woman had who is allergic to tree nuts after eating a peach yogurt.

My stepdad is a botanist and mentioned to me that peaches have tree nuts inside - their pits! When they are processed there is a good chance particles of the pit will contaminate the fruit. I would caution anyone who has tree nut allergies to be careful about eating fruit like apricots and peaches! Please spread the word but also check this out yourself with your doctor.

Elisa

Jenny said...

Elisa, thank you for your valuable info.

I had also heard that peaches and also apricots may cause problems for people with nut allergies. These fruits are almond family, a tree nut.

My daughter has been able to eat these fruits with no problems, thankfully. However, more sensitive individuals may need to look out for this.

You bring home an excellent point: know everything you can about the foods you are allergic to and always ask your doctor for more help.

Thank you so much for pointing this out. You've helped a lot of people today!:)