Food Banks Toss 'Thousands of Pounds of Food' Linked to Peanut Recall

As some of you know we discussed in class the other day about the recall on some peanut butter products. Today I am going to talk about how this outbreak is affecting food banks all over the country.

Food banks are throwing out thousands of pounds of food containing peanuts recalled in the salmonella outbreak which as occurred in these past few weeks. More than 1,800 peanut products have been recalled in the wake of the salmonella outbreak linked to the Peanut Corporation of America's Blakely, Ga. plant. This brings up a real big problem for food banks because granola bars, cereals, cookies, nut mixes and peanut butter have been a basis food for pantries because of their durability and long shelf life but now all of them containing peanuts must be thrown away. With the economy struggling, the timing couldn't be worse for food banks to just be throwing food away.

The nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization, Feeding America, says food banks across the country reported a 30 percent jump in demand in December 2008 compared with the previous year. So it is essential that they are able to get all the food they can to help the growing number of people that they help. This outbreak is not only hurting the banks food supplies but it is also hurting their staffing. Workers have to spend hours searching their stockpiles for the tainted items instead of serving those in need.

The salmonella outbreak has sickened nearly 600 people and is linked to nine deaths