Is that Salmonella in your Peanut Butter?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a Recalls, Market Withdrawals and Safety Alerts page that’s also available as an RSS feed.

I’ve been subscribing to the feed for the past couple of weeks, and it has provided me with an interesting (and somewhat disturbing) look into what can go wrong with food; for example:

Product testing by several states has now confirmed that Peter Pan peanut butter and certain Great Value brand peanut butter are the sources of the foodborne illness outbreak of Salmonella Tennessee that began in August 2006. To date 329 individuals have become ill from consuming the contaminated peanut butter, and 51 of those persons were hospitalized.

and:

Castle Produce, a subsidiary of Tropical Produce, Inc., a wholesale importer of fresh fruit and vegetables announced the recall of cantaloupes in California due to potential health concerns. Some cantaloupes delivered on or after 2/16/2007 have tested positive for Salmonella, although no illnesses have been reported.

and:

Americas Kitchen of Alpharetta, GA, is recalling its 32-ounce packages of “Wellsley Farms” Green Bean Casserole sold from September 1, 2006 through February 22, 2007 because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause illness, mild, moderate or even severe.

and:

The American Italian Pasta Company (AIPC), the independent manufacturer of Giant Eagle brand Egg Free Pasta Ribbons, has notified Giant Eagle that a recently produced shipment of the product may inadvertently contain eggs.

And those are only from this week.