Salmonella Incidents Affecting NYC Dessert Menus

With more than 575 people sick in 43 states, public fears over salmonella-tainted peanuts are affecting restaurant menu offerings in the city. The Times reports that peanut-based desserts made by Gramercy Tavern’s Nancy Olson and Dovetail’s Vera Tong have been removed at least temporarily from dessert menus, and more customers want to know the origin of peanut products served by restaurants. The salmonella crisis allegedly stems from tainted peanuts sold by Peanut Corp. of America, a Virginia-based company, to an assortment of manufacturers and food producers like Clif Bar and Little Debbie.

A federal investigation contends that the Peanut Corp. of America knowingly shipped tainted peanuts from its Blakely, Georgia factory. A plant in Plainview, Texas operated by the company has also been shut down. And from the early evidence, it seems as though Peanut Corp. of America Stewart Parnell was considering only profit when the tainted nuts were shipped.

The full list of manufacturers using Peanut Corp. of America indicates how downright labyrinthine and intricate our nation’s food supply and manufacturing lines have become, which is all definitely an argument for more local and smaller-scale food production. And chefs seem to agree: “Nancy Olson,” the Times reports, “took the opportunity to start making her own peanut butter.” Meanwhile, Google’s picture of salmonella-related searches might give better resolution to where the outbreaks are, at least until a Google “Flu Trends” is invented for food-borne pathogenic illness.

Meanwhile, peanut butter sales have dropped nationwide, despite peanut-origin assurances from bakers like Marlo Scott at Sweet Revenge, where the p.b. cupcakes are made with exonerated brand Jiffy. And if you want to know why Americans love peanut butter, look no further than this Slate article.