Sunland Peanut Butter Recall Impacts Uncrustables

The Sunland Peanut Butter recall continues to drag on. The latest product recalled due to the use of the Sunland Peanut Butter – Smucker’s Uncrustables. Smucker’s points out that the recall only impacts the Uncrustables that were sold for USDA School Lunch Program, and not their other peanut butter related products. In fact, the Sunland product was only used for limited production runs of the Uncrustables. It is also important to not that there have been no illnesses linked to the Smucker’s product.

Companies often supplement their own supply with ingredients produced by others. When this occurs, especially with ingredients to be used in ready-to-eat applications, that purchaser has to make sure that the supplier has a stout food safety program. Companies spend countless millions of dollars establishing a well-respected brand, and can see it tarnished quickly by a less-than-stellar supplier.  

Smucker's Uncrustables sold to schools recalled

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/19/smuckers-uncrustables-recall/1644249/

The J.M. Smucker Co. used peanut butter that was produced by Sunland, a company recently linked to salmonella illnesses.
12:44PM EDT October 19. 2012 - USAToday

 MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Officials have told school lunch programs across the country to check to see whether they have any Smucker's Uncrustables sandwiches that might contain peanut butter made by a New Mexico company that is being recalled because of potential salmonella contamination.

The J.M. Smucker Co. used peanut butter that was produced by Sunland Inc. and supplied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in "limited production runs" of 72-count bulk packs of the sandwiches that went to schools under the National School Lunch Program, Smucker's spokeswoman Maribeth Badertscher said in an e-mail Thursday.
Uncrustables are pre-made peanut butter and jelly, pocket-like, circular sandwiches.

 The Orrville, Ohio-based company tests all the incoming USDA-supplied peanut butter it gets, and tests finished products before distributing them, and found no problems, she said.

 But out of "an abundance of caution," and working with federal agencies, she said, Smucker's recently notified school customers that they should check to see if they still have any of the crustless frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from the recalled lots, which all have either expired or will expire soon. They should not be served to students, the company said.

 No other Smucker's products contain peanut butter from Sunland or other outside suppliers, Badertscher said. She said she did not immediately know how many sandwiches were involved.

Sunland shut down its plant in Portales, N.M., last month and recalled more than 200 products made under a variety of brand names after salmonella was found in Trader Joe's Creamy Salted Valencia Peanut Butter. Thirty-five illnesses in 19 states have been linked to Sunland, but no illnesses have been linked to the Uncrustable sandwiches.

"When USDA learned of the FDA recall of certain products manufactured by Sunland, Inc., we coordinated with state agencies to immediately notify individual school districts and ensure that recalled products were identified and destroyed," USDA spokeswoman Alyn Kiel said in an e-mail.

The Smucker's recall was first reported by Food Poisoning Bulletin, a website published by Minneapolis-based food safety lawyer Fred Pritzker.

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