Killer PB? Most people are aware of the peanut butter scare, but a new Harvard survey finds many don't know how widespread it really is.
“Are you really going to eat that?” my mate asked yesterday.
I was opening a jar of gourmet chocolate chip cookie dough peanut butter, which had arrived in a box of samples.
“Yeah, I’m living on the edge,” I replied, spreading a generous schmear of the stuff on toasted ciabatta. The jarful of three of my favorite things–peanut butter, chocolate, and cookie dough–seduced me into overlooking the risk.
Like just about everyone else who hasn’t been living under a rock, we’ve heard about salmonella-tainted peanut butter, which has led the FDA to recall more than 130 products. The agency even sent out alerts on Twitter.
A new survey from the Harvard School of Public Health suggests the government has done a pretty good job of getting the word out. More than 90 percent of Americans are aware of the issue, and of those, more than 60 percent have changed their habits. They’re scrutinizing ingredient lists at the grocery store, throwing away potentially tainted foods at home, and avoiding restaurant dishes that contain peanuts.
That’s a good strategy, considering the dudes who head up the Peanut Corporation of America invoked the fifth amendment, refusing to testify before a congressional hearing. Evidence suggests they knowingly shipped tainted PB.
There’s a striking level of awareness of this recall, and many people have taken action. But they’re not aware of the range of products involved in the recall.
But the Harvard study indicates consumers are still confused about the wide range of foods covered by the recall. The array of potentially tainted products is daunting, ranging from the obvious–peanut butter–to the less expected, like pet food. Less than half of consumers know that the recall includes snack bars, cakes, brownies, cookies, pet treats, candies, prepackaged meals, and dry-roasted peanuts. Whew!
“There’s a striking level of awareness of this recall, and many people have taken action. But they’re not aware of the range of products involved in the recall,” says Robert J. Blendon, professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health. “People should check the Food and Drug Administration recall list routinely, since the number of products is still growing.”
The peanut scare is only the latest in a growing list of food safety snafus that point to the urgent need to revamp our food safety system. It’s no surprise to Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics, who has for years noted that the U.S. government does a woefully inadequate job of policing the safety of our food supply. “What more evidence do we need that an overhaul of the food safety system is very much in order?” she recently posited on her blog. ”Congress: this is your problem to solve! Citizens: write your congressional representatives!”
That’s easy enough to do–everyone in congress has a Web site and e-mail address. Drop your representatives a line to voice your demand for safe food.
