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Death Linked To Tainted Peanut Butter

Elderly Philadelphia Woman's Death Had Gone Unexplained

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 22, 2007

• FDA Failed to Follow Up on 2004 Peanut Butter Contamination • Peter Pan Returning To Store Shelves • Consumers Still Getting Sick From Tainted Peanut Butter • Fourth Peanut Butter Death Reported • Peanut Butter Recall Extended to Products Made as Early as 2004 • Peanut Butter Scare Stirs Congress • Consumers Left Holding the Peanut Butter Jar • Earlier Peanut Butter Contamination Kept Quiet • Peanut Butter Developed as a Health Food • Third Death Blamed on Peanut Butter • Peanut Butter Recalls Spread to Ice Cream & Desserts • FDA Says Peanut Butter Salmonella Outbreak Is "Ongoing" • Salmonella Confirmed in Peanut Butter • Second Death Linked To Tainted Peanut Butter • Death Linked To Tainted Peanut Butter • ConAgra Recalls Tainted Peanut Butter as Complaints Mount • FDA Widens Peanut Butter Warning • Reports of Peanut Butter-Borne Illness Increase • FDA Warns of Salmonella in Peanut Butter --- • Consumer Complaints about Peanut Butter --- • Salmonella: What It Is • More about Food Safety ...

When 76-year old Roberta Barkay of Philadelphia died last month from complications of food poisoning, family members weren't quite sure of the source. Now, they say they are.

Roberta Barkay ate some of the ConAgra-produced peanut butter now at the center of a nationwide salmonella outbreak.

Attorney Robert Pierce has filed a wrongful death suit against ConAgra, claiming the company's peanut butter made both Barkay and her husband very sick. Pierce says a check of labels confirmed that the family had two jars of the now-recalled peanut butter in the home.

So far, at least 300 cases of illnesses have been linked to the outbreak, although one attorney who had already filed a class action lawsuit claims to have been contacted by more than 2,000 alleged victims.

ConsumerAffairs.com has received more than 70 complaints from consumers who say they became ill. Many did not seek medical care and those who did were often misdiagnosed.

Wilma of Mooresville, N.C., said she went to the emergency room after being sick for several days.

"I was feeling dizzy, still nauseated, and numb on the left side of my face. I thought I might be having a stroke. The ER did a CAT scan and came back with the general idea that I was suffering from a sinus infection due to the fact that they saw that my nasal passages were clogged," she said.

"They gave me prescriptions for antibiotics, and decongestants for my lungs which did not help at all, since I did not have a sinus infection," she said.

Patricia of Spirit Lake, Fla., became alarmed after she and her four children became ill after eating the recalled peanut butter. She called and emergency room and was told there is no test for Salmonella poisoning.

Salmonella • Salmonella Outbreaks: A Recent History • Salmonella: What It Is --- • More about Food Safety

In fact, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, salmonellosis is diagnosed through serological identification of culture isolated from stool.

Physicians and public health officials are concerned by reports that consumers are trying to "tough it out" and are not seeking medical care for Salmonella, especially when the ill person is a senior, a child or has an existing medical condition.

"Individuals who have recently eaten the affected Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter and who have experienced any symptoms of Salmonella infection should contact their health care provider immediately," according to the FDA.

"Symptoms include fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. For persons in poor health or with weakened immune systems, Salmonella can invade the bloodstream and cause life-threatening infections."

The tainted peanut butter was marketed under the Peter Pan and generic Great Value brands and was sold after March 2006. The company says the suspect jars can be identified by a number on the jar lid that begins with the number 2111.

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