DIANE SAWYER (ABC NEWS)(OC): And now, the peanut
butter recall. We have been reading all your posts and
emails to us about peanut butter and which brands are linked to at least 30 cases
of salmonella poisoning. So many of you have been asking us as we go
through our kitchen cabinets, exactly what should we do? And ABC's Steve Osunsami now has a kind of
user's guide for families.
STEVE OSUNSAMI (ABC NEWS)(OC): Today, government
official trying to contain
this salmonella outbreak told us it
doesn't look good and to expect more reported cases linked to jars of peanut
butter sold at grocery
stores across the country.
STEVE OSUNSAMI (ABC NEWS)(VO): So far,
30 people sick,
most of them children, across 19 states.
For families searching through kitchen cabinets tonight for potentially
dangerous jars of nut butter, it's terribly confusing.
STEVE OSUNSAMI (ABC NEWS)(VO): First, what jars and brands
are being recalled? Well, it isn't your larger name brands like
Jif or Skippy. Those products are
fine. All of the recalled products are
linked to the Sunland Peanut Butter Corporation in New Mexico.
STEVE OSUNSAMI (ABC NEWS)(VO): They
make the peanut butter under many labels - the Sunland brand, Trader Joe's
peanut butter, Harry and David, Sprouts, and the Archer Farms brand that's sold
at Target.
DOCTOR ROBERT TAUXE (CDC): All the
illnesses that have been investigated are related to the peanut butter products
from the one plant.
STEVE OSUNSAMI (ABC NEWS)(VO): So now,
you've found one of these brands in your cupboard. Should you automatically toss it
out?
STEVE OSUNSAMI (ABC NEWS)(VO): The
company says to look on the side of the jar for the "best
if used by" date. Anything between
May 1st and September 24, 2014, throw it away.
But what if your family has already gone through
half the jar?
STEVE OSUNSAMI (ABC NEWS)(VO): What
are the signs
of a salmonella infection? Doctors say high fever, stomach
cramps and dysentery,
which can show up within one to three days.
STEVE OSUNSAMI (ABC NEWS)(OC): We
talked with families of children who got sick and they tell us stories of 103-degree fevers
that lasted for days.
STEVE OSUNSAMI (ABC NEWS)(VO): They
were shocked to learn it may have started with their peanut butter. Steve Osunsami, ABC News, Atlanta.