Monday, February 2, 2009

Caribou Coffee joins the parade of peanut recallers

Caribou Coffee has become what appears to be the first restaurant chain to recall a product because it may contain peanuts contaminated with salmonella.

The Food and Drug Administration disclosed the recall of Caribou Fruit & Nut Blend Trail Mix this afternoon via Twitter. The announcement explains that Caribou, the (distant) Number Two coffee chain behind Starbucks, was informed the peanuts in the mix were supplied by Peanut Corp. of America, the Georgia processor implicated as the source of the two-months-long-and-counting salmonella outbreak. No one has reported being sickened by the product, which Caribou was selling in three-ounce, sealed cellophane packets, the announcement noted.

It also noted that the mix, supplied ready-to-sell by Marra Brothers/Marich Confectionary, was still being distributed as of last Friday.

Starbucks had earlier pulled some of its peanut-containing products, but had not issued a recall. The items were merely taken off store shelves or no longer sold.

More than 500 people have been sickened by salmonella that was traced back to Peanut Corp.

1 comment:

Edward Vielmetti said...

Here's the recall notice and a comment from Caribou PR.

I was surprised that the announcement which went out on a Friday listed a phone number that was not answered over a weekend; not a big deal for public safety, but odd to do that level of publicity and not at least have a recorded message.