almotamar.net Google Health - Today, I have a cautionary tale involving peanut butter and paranoia.
Since I started covering food-borne illness outbreaks last fall, I've been afflicted by a certain level of paranoia about what I eat, to the point where, even months after the spinach outbreak, I can't bring myself to buy a bag of Dole fresh spinach. When I do buy non-lettuce leafy greens, I boil them to death before consuming them. Whenever I handle raw eggs now, I wash my hands in scalding water before touching anything else -- you get the idea. Anyway, lately I had actually been trying to be less paranoid, but my timing couldn't have been more lousy -- with unfortunate consequences for my poor spouse!
I had been following the salmonella outbreak in Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter at work last week, but didn't think to check our stash at home. You can probably guess what happened next. On Thursday, my husband began complaining of stomach cramps and other digestive ailments of which I'll spare you the gory details. A couple of days later, he was still having symptoms when we were cleaning out the fridge before a trek to the supermarket. Out of curiosity, I picked up the can of Peter Pan peanut butter that I had bought about a month ago and I immediately recognized the product code on the lid as the one that the FDA had issued a warning about on Feb. 14.
My husband had eaten some of the peanut butter on Monday. Granted, that was two days before the FDA warning. But I feel awful that I didn't check the jar as soon as I got home the night I first heard about it. By the time I recognized the recalled product code, our doctor's office was closed. The good doc didn't return a message left at his office on Sunday and no one answered the phone at his office on Monday. My poor spouse has been toughing it out ever since. (Yes, he could go to the ER, but luckily, it hasn't been that dire.)
When I told one of my girlfriends yesterday what I think happened, she replied: "I feel for Dan. If there's one thing I'd expect to be kept on top of, it's recall notices!"
Argh.
Of course, we don't know with absolute certainty that salmonella was in the peanut butter, but my husband's symptoms and the time frame of his illness fit the profile for infection pretty closely. We've even kept the offending jar to give to the health department for testing, so hopefully at some point we'll find out for sure.
The only silver lining in this episode--besides that my husband is otherwise healthy and will recover soon--is that right before buying the suspect jar, I had abandoned my usual PB&J breakfast after a sister-in-law suggested I avoid anything with peanuts during my last trimester, lest my child develops peanut allergies.
I guess there's no such thing as being too paranoid.
Check your peanut butter!
Have you ever ignored a recall and regretted it?