The King Nut Food Supply Company announced an immediate recall of their institutional brands King Nut and Parnell's Pride peanut butter. Minnesota State Health officials linked the country's latest outbreak of Salmonella food poisoning to tainted peanut butter. King Nut is a large scale distributor of peanut butter and other foodservice products to hospitals, schools, and nursing homes. The company does not manufacture their brand of peanut butter.
The peanut butter in question was produced by the Peanut Corporation of America, which issued a statement expressing dismay over the discovery of salmonella bacteria in a King Nut five gallon jar of peanut butter. However, the company instatly struck a defensive position, insisting that the chain of custody of that peanut butter jar had not been fully established, and more conclusive facts needed to be revealed.
Minnesota Health officials established in preliminary laboratory testing that the Salmonella found in a jar of King Nut peanut butter was identical to the strain responsible for the large outbreak of salmonella bacteria food poisoning in the United States since September of 2008. This same salmonella outbreak has been responsible for hundreds of cases of salmonella poisoning and hospitalizations in 42 states.
