FDA Peanut Recall Hitting Campus? Not Really

1,914.

That’s how many different products have been pulled off the shelves in response to salmonella outbreak in peanuts by the FDA (click here for their site). While the voluntary recall did not include most brands of peanut butter, it does impact a variety of people and pet food items, including cookies, brownies, donuts and even vegan pad thai.

The FDA is deploying a number of methods to educate the public about the potentially unsafe products, including twitter, the 140-character-or-less messaging app. To follow their updates, simply sign onto your twitter account (or create one) and follow @FDArecall. If you’re not into the twitter, visit their site for a list of all the recalled items.

So how safe are we at Maryland? A quick glance at the snack machine on the SPH’s first floor shows a variety of peanut-packed products, but only one—a candy bar called “Nut Job”—was found on the FDA recall list.

When I contacted Corporate Services—who run the snack machines on campus—they handled the problem quickly and effectively. About 10 minutes after I talked with them, I received an email back saying that they had contacted the vending machine company and would ensure that those candy bars were removed by tomorrow afternoon.

But what about elsewhere on campus? For more insight, the Healthy Turtle recently spoke with Bart Hipple, the Assistant Director of Communications for Dining Services, and found out some good news—namely, that none of the recalled products are found in campus eateries or shops.

Healthy Turtle: Was dining services in anyway affected by the salmonella outbreak among peanut products? Have you pulled any products from the shelves, thrown out inventory, etc?

Bart Hipple: We were not. The recall affected mostly retail products (granola bars, etc). Peanut butter was not affected. We did not have to pull, discard, or return any product. In the event of a recall, we return the product to our distributor and receive full credit for it.

HT: Do you know of any students who have fallen ill from salmonella?

Hipple: No. We would be notified if such an illness was being traced to our food but if a student developed salmonella or any other illness and our food was not suspected to be a cause we would not necessarily receive notification.

HT: In the future, are there safeguards in place to prevent students from getting sick in these type of situations?

Hipple: We currently have and have had safeguards in place for some time. Our distributors are required to monitor recalls and notify us if they have shipped affected product. In addition, our Procurement Administrator routinely monitors the FDA site. When there is a recall, he sends each of our managers an alert, information about whether we have received affected products, and (if appropriate) specific action steps to take.

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Thanks to Carol at Corporate Services for her help on the snack machine, and thanks to Bart Hipple for his insights. For more information on the recall, visit http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph.html.