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Minnesota Ties Peanut Butter to Salmonella Outbreak

By Pritzker | Ruohonen

Minnesota health investigators have found preliminary evidence that could tie five-pound tubs of King Nut brand creamy peanut butter to the Salmonella outbreak that has sickened almost 400 people in 42 states.

Thirty of the 388 confirmed cases in the outbreak are in Minnesota, where a woman in her 70s died after getting sick from the bacteria. Ten of the Minnesota cases were in nursing homes and 11 people infected by the bacteria were hospitalized, state health officials have said.

When the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak was first reported earlier this week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was working with other agencies to find the cause. Late Friday, the Minnesota Department of Health issued a news release urging restaurants, nursing homes, hospitals, schools and other institutional kitchens not to serve King Nut peanut butter.

The advisory was issued because preliminary lab testing of the product, which isn't normally sold at retail stores, indicated the presence of Salmonella with the same genetic fingerprint as the bacteria in the national outbreak. The peanut butter has not yet been linked directly to the national outbreak, but a Minnesota Department of Health spokesman told theStar Tribune newspaper that additional tests next week are likely to confirm the connection.

According to the CDC, Minnesota has the fourth most number of Salmonella Typhimurium cases in the outbreak. Only California with 55, Ohio with 53 and Massachusetts with 39 rank higher. The first known cases began to originate in early September.

Regarding the one death in Minnesota associated with the outbreak, a Minnesota Department of Health official has said the patient had "many other health conditions, so we don't know to what extent the Salmonella infection contributed to her death.''

What follows is a list of states involved in the outbreak and the corresponding number of confirmed Salmonella Typhimurium cases reported to the CDC: Alaska 1, Arkansas 3, Arizona 8, California 55, Colorado 9, Connecticut 6, Georgia 5, Hawaii 1, Iowa 1, Idaho 10, Illinois 4, Indiana 3, Kansas 2, Kentucky 3, Massachusetts 39, Maryland 7, Maine 3, Michigan 20, Minnesota 30, Missouri 8, North Carolina 1, North Dakota 10, Nebraska 1,New Hampshire 10, New Jersey 13, Nevada 6, New York 12, Ohio 53, Oklahoma 2, Oregon 5, Pennsylvania 12, Rhode Island 3, South Dakota 2, Tennessee 9, Texas 5, Utah 3, Virginia 12, Vermont 4, Washington 11, Wisconsin 3, West Virginia 2, Wyoming 2. 

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on January 09, 2009 (boomark / email).