Is Your CEO Smarter Than A Girl Scout? (Or Execs At Hershey's And Kraft?)

In my last post, entitled "Do You Eat Food? Then You Probably Want To Read This" I talked about being shocked at the scope of the fast-growing peanut product recall emanating from what is by all accounts a dangerously over-consolidated peanut paste/butter supply chain.

Well, not surprisingly, there have been more recalls added to the list:

* ABC Peanut Butter Cookie Dough 3 lb. pails
* Arbonne
* Arizona Gold
* Avanza Supermarket
* Baker Jo's Peanut Butter
* Chef Jay's
* Econofoods (excluding Wisconsin stores in Sturgeon Bay, Clintonville, Marquette, Holton and Iron Mountain)
* Family Fresh Market
* Family Thrift Center
* Food Bonanza
* Gigi's
* GNC Triflex
* Gourmet Cookie Dough
* Jimmy's Cookies
* Ovens of Ashley
* Parker
* Pick'n Save (Ohio stores in Van Wert and Ironton only)
* Prairie Market
* Rain Creek Baking Company
* Shurfine
* Sinbad
* SunMart Foods
* Trader Joe's
* Wholesale Food Outlet

Recalled but not on the FDA's list yet:
* Archer Farms (sold at Target)
* Sam's Choice (sold at Wal-Mart)
* Dough-to-Go cookie dough (California)
* Jane Dough cookie dough (Washington, Nevada, and Arizona)
* Auntie Ono cookie dough (Hawaii)
* ShopRite
* Whole Foods
* Happy Tails

To address Jon's point about more recalls occurring as manufacturers are able to accurately test for more pathogens, I'd probably say that these numbers -- nearly 500 sickened, over 100 hospitalized, somewhere between 7 and 11 deaths from this outbreak -- probably form a pretty good (albeit altogether too tardy) detection method where food supply chain contamination is concerned.

Rumors about the source of the salmonella contamination are pointing to a faulty sprinkler system at the PCA plant.

Well, at least our Girl Scout cookies are safe -- according to a recent Times story:

While investigators try to determine how widespread the contamination might be, food companies like Hershey's and Kraft, which say they do not use the Georgia company's products, scrambled to get the word out that their Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Nutter Butter cookies were safe.

So did the Girl Scout organization, which has about two-thirds of its 2.4 million scouts out selling cookies including peanut butter patties and the long-popular peanut butter sandwich cookie. The Girl Scouts' cookie bakers have tested their products and do not buy from the Georgia company.