Some retailers slow to pull peanut snack products

You’re driving along, and the urge hits for a snack, maybe even some peanut butter crackers. If you happen to pull into a convenience store and reach for the snack shelf — be wary.

State food-safety officials say that despite calls to clear the shelves of products recalled during the salmonella outbreak, they are still finding some of those items in the marketplace.

• For all the latest developments on the peanut crisis and the salmonella outbreak, with an updated list of recalled items, plus background on the scare, go to the AJC's special report: ajc.com/peanuts.

“Some are still turning up,” said Arty Schronce, spokesman for the state Agriculture Department, which inspects the stores. “I would urge consumers to make sure.”

While many stores — particularly major supermarkets — appear to be keeping up with the recalls, smaller stores seem to be less consistent, according to some spot checks by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

An informal survey of places in metro Atlanta found several that still had recalled items on their shelves.

The salmonella outbreak linked to a South Georgia peanut-processing plant has spawned one of the largest product recalls in American history. The list of products that are off-limits has risen to 1,550, with new names coming out daily. Moreover, the recall, which at first included products made through last July, recently was extended further, to January 2007.

“It’s so confusing,” said Shelly Awl, a clerk at a gas station on Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta. “I wish they would communicate better what is safe and what is not.”

Awl said she spent Thursday morning sorting through the snacks trying to determine what was safe. She had removed some Frito-Lay and Lance snacks that are not on the recall list.

Still there on the shelf, however, were two boxes of recalled Austin brand Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter.

She threw them out when informed by a reporter that they were on the recall list.

Another station on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs had Keebler Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter cookies that were on the FDA recall list.

Co-owner Riaz Shariff, told by a reporter that they were recalled, promptly removed all the Soft Batch cookies until he could determine which, if any, were safe.

“We haven’t received any notification,” Shariff said. “We depend on our suppliers to inform us of recalls. There are so many different products with peanut butter in them.”

More than 550 people in 43 states have been sickened in the salmonella outbreak, including six in Georgia, and the illness may be linked to eight deaths.

Federal health officials have identified Peanut Corp. of America as the sole source of the outbreak. The Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation of the plant.

The Georgia Agriculture Department is the state’s lead agency in charge of food safety, but the agency has only 60 inspectors watching over 16,000 stores, food warehouses and food-processing plants.

Schronce, the agency spokesman, said inspectors are making it a point to check store shelves during their routine inspections, but those generally occur only about once a year.

The agency depends a lot on industry groups to spread the word on recalls.

Representatives of some of the larger food stores say they have the recall process down to a science.

At Publix stores, recall alerts from suppliers and the FDA are immediately e-mailed to stores, which then have three hours to respond that they have removed the recalled item from the shelf, said spokeswoman Brenda Reid.

If it’s not accomplished, company managers continue to contact the store and will even send a representative there. District managers also check during their visits, she said.

The recalled item is also logged into the store’s computer, so if a customer finds one, the cashier will be alerted and will not be able to ring it up, Reid said.

Kroger stores are alerting customers who have a Kroger Plus Card of any recalled purchases through automated phone calls.

Also, customers who use the card and have bought any recalled products in the past will find on their checkout receipts a list of the past purchases that have been recalled because of possible salmonella contamination.

Elsewhere, there is still some confusion. At a gas station in North Fulton, Karan Singh eyed with suspicion a pile of energy bars, cookies and snacks that had been laid at the check-out counter for purchase.

“I don’t think I should sell these to you,” he told a customer. “These might not be good.”

Staff writers Chandler Brown, Kent A. Miles and Shane Blatt contributed to this report.