The following information on the Abbott Nutrition peanut butter bar recall is provided by PritzkerLaw. Our law firm is representing the family of one of the people who died in the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak that has sickened over 470 people and has been associated with 6 deaths. This case does not involve the products below, which have been recalled but have not been implicated in this outbreak.

Read our press releases: Salmonella wrongful death and Attorney Fred Pritzker Says Salmonella Outbreak Raises Food Safety Questions. Below is the Abbott Nutrition recall announcement as provided by the FDA:

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 19, 2009 -- Abbott Nutrition today announced that it is initiating a precautionary, voluntary recall of ZonePerfect® Chocolate Peanut Butter bars, ZonePerfect® Peanut Toffee bars and NutriPals™ Peanut Butter Chocolate bars in response to the widening recall involving peanut butter and peanut paste ingredients manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America (PCA).

PCA was one of the peanut ingredient suppliers to the company.

The specified Abbott Nutrition items, sold in the U.S. and internationally (Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore) in various packages and quantities, have not been linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak and there have been no reported cases of the salmonella illness associated with ZonePerfect or NutriPals products.

Abbott Nutrition tests every lot of finished ZonePerfect and NutriPals bars for salmonella and no salmonella contamination has been detected. This voluntary recall does not apply to Abbott Nutrition products sold in Canada.

Abbott Nutrition's action to issue a voluntary recall was supported by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration's advisement to manufacturers of an ongoing outbreak of salmonella involving peanut butter and peanut paste supplied by PCA. No other Abbott Nutrition products have been impacted by the PCA recall.

Abbott is working with retail partners to remove the specified products from retail store shelves and encouraging customers and consumers to verify if they have the specified products.
Consumers who have purchased the recalled products are urged to destroy the product. U.S. consumers with questions or who would like a refund may contact Abbott Nutrition Consumer Relations at (800) 986-8884.

Products impacted by the voluntary withdrawal are as follows:

• ZonePerfect Chocolate Peanut Butter bars, all sizes and quantities


• ZonePerfect Peanut Toffee bars, all sizes and quantities


• NutriPals Peanut Butter Chocolate nutrition bars, all sizes and quantitie

Labels: King Nut, peanut butter recall, peanut butter salmonella wrongful death, Peanut Corporation of America lawsuit

A Minnesota man in his 70s who was living in a nursing home while coping with multiple health problems is the second person in the state to die after being sickened by a peanut butter-related outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said a total of five deaths are associated with the 4-month-old outbreak: Two in Minnesota, two in Virginia and one in Idaho.

Doug Schultz, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health, said the extent of Salmonella's contribution to the Minnesota man's death is unknown. A week ago, Schultz said a Minnesota woman in her 70s who also had health conditions died after contracting the Salmonella bug.

She too lived in a long-term care facility. Fred Pritzker, one of the leading food safety lawyers in the U.S., said Thursday he has been retained by the heirs of the Minnesota woman who died. His firm, Minneapolis-based Pritzker Law, is one of the few firms in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation.

Pritzker said he plans to commence a lawsuit very soon against the maker and distributor of contaminated peanut butter that was in use at the care facility in Brainerd, Minn., where Shirley Mae Almer was living when she contracted her Salmonella infection. She died Dec. 21 at age 72.

Officials from the Minnesota Department of Health told members of Almer's family that a five-pound tub of King Nut creamy peanut butter at Mrs. Almer's care facility tested positive for the same genetically matched strain of Salmonella that had infected Mrs. Almer. Later, the strain was genetically matched to the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium that has sickened at least 434 people in 43 states.

Pritzker said Mrs. Almer likely contracted the disease from toast topped with peanut butter shortly before she became ill.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said again Thursday that commercially sold peanut butter is the likely cause of the outbreak. To date, the CDC has said, the outbreak has not been associated with any retail brand of peanut butter sold in grocery stores.

The two companies involved in making and selling King Nut and Parnell's Pride peanut butter to nursing homes, hospitals, schools and other institutions have announced recalls of the product. The first to act was distributor King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio. Then on Tuesday, Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America, the maker of both brands, announced its own voluntary recall of peanut butter produced at its Blakely, Georgia, processing plant "because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.''

Peanut Corporation of America said none of the recalled peanut butter was sold in grocery stores. The containers range in size from five to 50 pounds each. Customers were asked to immediately remove all peanut butter from 21 lots of production made after July 1, 2008.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published Peanut Corporation's recall announcement. The FDA also published a related announcement from Kellogg Company of Battle Creek, Mich., relating to Keebler and Austin brand sandwich crackers containing peanut butter. Kellogg said it is voluntarily putting a "precautionary hold'' on all inventories it controls of certain sandwich crackers. Kellogg said it was taking the action because Peanut Corporation has been one of its suppliers of peanut paste.

The CDC said Thursday that it is continuing to investigate outbreak patients' exposure to peanut butter and "peanut butter-containing'' products.

Labels: King Nut, peanut butter salmonella, salmonella deaths, Salmonella lawsuit, salmonella lawyer