Oregon Public Broadcasting

Health officials are warning people to avoid prepared foods that contain peanut butter products such as cookies, crackers, cereal, and ice cream.  As Pete Springer reports, those products may be linked to a deadly nationwide outbreak of Salmonella.

Six deaths in the U.S. have been linked to a salmonella outbreak possibly due to peanut-butter and peanut paste.

Nearly 500 people have become sick due to the outbreak -- five in Oregon, eleven in Idaho, and thirteen in Washington.

Dozens of products containing peanut butter have been recalled. 

The source of the outbreak appears to be peanut products sold in bulk containers by the Peanut Corporation of America in Georgia. 

Lola Russell is with the Centers for Disease Control.

She says the CDC is warning people about prepared foods containing peanut butter, but that at this time, it does not appear that peanut butter sold in jars is a problem.

Lola Russell “Common, popular brands of peanut butter that you get out of the jar in the grocery stores does not appear to be associated with this outbreak.”

You can find a list of nearly two dozen recalled peanut butter products on the FDA website.