ConAgra Bringing Back Peter Pan Peanut Butter

Apr 05, 05:15 PM

Current Headlines: By Joe Ruff, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

Apr. 5--Peter Pan peanut butter will be back on store shelves by mid-July, about five months after it was recalled because of a nationwide salmonella outbreak, ConAgra Foods officials said Wednesday.

The company said Thursday that the cause of the salmonella outbreak was that the manufacturing plant's roof leaked once and a faulty sprinkler went off twice in August 2006, allowing moisture into the plant. Despite extensive cleanup, the moisture apparently came into contact with latent salmonella from raw peanuts or peanut dust and became entrenched in some areas of the plant, ConAgra said.

The only plant that made Peter Pan, in Sylvester, Ga., has been shut down since the recall and is undergoing a major renovation. It will not open until early August.

In the meantime, another food manufacturer will make Peter Pan to ConAgra's specifications so that the product can be back in stores several weeks earlier, company spokeswoman Stephanie Childs said.

ConAgra is determined to win back business for Peter Pan and the company's private label peanut butter business, Childs said.

ConAgra recalled Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter it made at the Georgia plant for Wal-Mart in February after federal officials notified the company of nearly 300 hundred illnesses in 39 states. Reported illnesses grew to 425 people in 44 states from August to mid-February, including two in Nebraska and eight in Iowa.

ConAgra also faces several lawsuits filed by people across the country who claimed they became ill after eating Peter Pan.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

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