Stores remove peanut butter products

Several metro Atlanta hospitals, schools and stores were taking precautions against the salmonella outbreak Thursday, removing peanut butter products from menus, shelves and vending machines.

Concerns mounted as Kellogg Company voluntarily stopped distributing —- and encouraged people not to eat —- Austin and Keebler brands Toasted Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Crackers, Cheese and Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers and Peanut Butter-Chocolate Sandwich Crackers. The company has not received any complaints of illness, company officials said.

The snacks are made in part, they said Thursday, with peanut butter manufactured by Peanut Corp. of America, which has a plant in South Georgia that is under investigation as a possible source of the salmonella outbreak.

Also on Thursday, the Georgia Department of Agriculture said that tests of peanut butter samples from the Blakely plant revealed “microbial contamination.” Further tests will determine whether the contamination is salmonella, officials said.

It remains unclear whether any of the peanut butter suspected of contamination was distributed in metro Atlanta, or whether any of the six Georgians who have taken ill with the salmonella strain live in the metro area. The outbreak has been associated with the deaths of five people and sickness among 448 people in 43 states, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, metro Atlanta establishments are taking action. Officials at Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta Medical Center, North Fulton Regional Hospital and South Fulton Medical Center said they stopped serving peanut butter to patients and at their cafeterias.

Cobb County school officials said they are removing any of the earlier mentioned peanut butter crackers from school vending machines.

Also, the crackers are being removed from the shelves of the Food Depot stores in metro Atlanta, said company vice president Raymond Johnson.