Peanut Recovery & Vicks Recall

Peanut Recovery & Vicks Recall plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Back in January peanut butter was suspect in a salmonella outbreak. Ryan Lepicier of the National Peanut Board explains how an aggressive information and marketing campaign helped turn around sales.

LEPICIER: Peanut butter sales took a hit of over 20% in January when the crisis hit but by March peanut butter sales were up over ’08 5% so there was a period there where people were questioning in their minds –can I eat peanuts and peanut butter? And then they realized, oh, peanut butter is safe. One of our key messages we repeated over and over in interviews with the media is that jarred peanut butter that you buy at the grocery store has never been affected and once people started hearing that message they returned to the grocery store and bought more peanut butter.

Right in the middle of sniffle season Procter & Gamble is recalling Vicks Sinex nasal spray in the United States, Britain and Germany after finding it contained bacteria. They announced the voluntary recall after finding the bacteria in a small amount of product made at a plant in Germany. There have been no reports of illness from the bacteria, but it could cause serious infections for people with weakened immune systems or those with chronic lung conditions such as cystic fibrosis.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

Oh my gosh, what are we all going to do?  The recent announcement of a nation wide shortage of Kellogg’s Eggo Waffles has resulted in several grocery stores rationing out the toaster sized breakfast food and even going so far as to place warning notices in their frozen foods section. People any where from the age of ten to eighty are facing their morning with wide eyed alarm. Relax, there’s no need for panic. Take a deep breath, open that kitchen cupboard and look way back in the back. See it, that’s a waffle iron. Ingenious little gadget really, invented clear back in 1869. By plugging it into nearly any kitchen outlet, letting it heat up, and then pouring in batter consisting of milk, flour, egg, butter, and baking powder, (all still readily available at your local grocer thanks to our nation’s farmers), you yourself can create your very own homemade Eggo, ergo, waffle. Who knows, maybe you will even get to like the make it yourself variety of breakfast. Ultimately it could lead to the make it yourself lunch and dinner.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.