The ongoing recall of products containing peanut ingredients sourced from the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) will not cause any problems for food services at Paly or at any other Palo Alto Unified School District, according to the district Student Nutrition Services office.
The recall, which was initiated in the wake of a recent salmonella outbreak, thought to be caused by infected PCA peanut plants, will not affect PAUSD schools, according to Theresa Poon at the PAUSD Student Nutrition Services office.
“We [at PAUSD] do not use any peanut-related stuff [in our food or cooking], and we are not affected by this recall at all,” Poon said.
Poon did note that PAUSD occasionally provides schools with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from Smucker’s, but said that these sandwiches were not part of the recall.
“They [the sandwiches] are from Smucker’s and they’re pre-made sandwiches; we got them a while ago, and they are in the freezer,” Poon said.
According to the Smucker’s Web site, Smucker’s is not involved in the recall and does not purchase from PCA.
According to Poon, PAUSD also purchases Late July brand organic peanut butter sandwich crackers, and, at first, the source of Late July’s peanut butter was unclear, but the Student Nutrition Services office researched the matter and has come to the conclusion that the peanut butter is safe, as there is no mention of Late July in the Food and Drug Administration’s recalled products list and as the Late July Web site states that the company is not included in the recall.
The recall is the result of the contamination with salmonella of peanut plants at the PCA facility in Blakely, Georgia, and currently includes nearly 400 peanut-related products ranging from ice cream and cookies to energy bars and pet food, according to the list of recalled products on the Food and Drug Administration Web site.
The salmonella outbreak has reached 43 states and there are a total of 491 cases thought to be linked to contaminated, PCA peanut products, with the outbreak possibly linked to seven deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.
According to a Jan. 18 press release, PCA has halted all production at the Blakely site and is working with the FDA and CDC in their investigation of the salmonella outbreak.