Pea(poop)nut Butter Recall

AH!  I can’t believe this!  For the past 6 plus years of my life I’ve been searching for product recalls to write about for our consumer segment on the newscast – none of them ever affected me personally.  Of course, now that I don’t get to see hardly any news there’s a recall that affects my family and I just fed the potential poison to Nia last night!  I found out about it in the weirdest way too – as I was checking out at Publix tonight the cashier was mumbling and laughing about about “feeding her sister Peter Pan peanut butter” – I must have shot the what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about look at her because she then went on to tell me about the recall.

I haven’t eaten a lick of the peanut butter myself but I’ve been serving up the possibly salmonella-infested spread to Nia since we moved into this house.  I’m searching my memory trying to think if she got sick after eating the last sandwich I made for her – but that doesn’t matter because all of these websites say even if you haven’t gotten sick yet you still could and you won’t know it for like 8 to 72 hours after you swallow it down.  Now I have to sit through 3 days hoping my little girl doesn’t have a potty attack.  In the meantime, I’m just going to scowl at the little brown jar with it’s alarming red lid as if to tell it – you and me – we’re gonna go rounds if you upset my sweetie’s tummy.  I know I’m supposed to throw the jar away and all – it’s just right now I feel this strong need to have a showdown with it – at a distance of course.

It’s interesting what something like this can do to people.  I’ve read that some are suing because they say the salmonella infection cost them money due to lost work and doctor bills – others say they’re afraid to ever eat the peanut butter brands again. As for what it did to me – it’s taught me a lesson.  I’m trying to make sure I won’t miss another recall – I’ve signed up to get email alerts from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department.  We’ll see…