Got Salmonella?

Dogs and peanut butter go together like, well, people and peanut butter. Peanut butter is a well-loved product. Remember that Got Milk commercial with the dog with the peanut butter stuck to the roof of his mouth? (I couldn’t find it, but this one is almost as good.) I used to use it to glue Mulan’s pills to her palate. It’s like doggy manna. Given its status as Most Favored Flavor, it’s hard to find a dog treat out there that doesn’t come in a peanut butter version.

Sadly, the recent inexcusable peanut butter contamination issue has extended to several pet food products. For a current list of recalled products from the FDA, click here.

Oregon officials have confirmed at least one case of Salmonella in a dog linked to a recalled dog biscuit. Please take just a minute to check your pantry and make sure you don’t have one of the recalled products hiding in there- with all the hoopla in emptying the house of peanut butter crackers for the humans, it’s easy to forget the other hidden places it’s hanging out. Fortunately for me and others like me, jarred peanut butter is still A-OK, so we can glue pills to our dog with wild abandon.

Or maybe not. It seems to get worse every day, doesn’t it? I vaguely remember sitting in horror during my Food Safety lectures in school learning about the maximum acceptable amount of rodent hairs in peanut butter (hint: it isn’t 0, unfortunately). I doubt that is related to the Salmonella, but in the meantime maybe I’ll dig up a recipe for home-made peanut butter-less treats. If you have one kicking around, please do share!