Stores Struggle To Keep Up With Peanut Recalls

SPOKANE — Local grocery stores have been selling contaminated recalled peanut products, a discovery which comes on the heels of the announcement there are two cases of Salmonella in the Spokane area.

The Spokane Regional Health District has confirmed there are two cases of Salmonella in the area related to the nationwide outbreak which his sickened nearly 700 people.

“Most of the products have been pulled from the shelves however there has been a few cases where there have been some and we know that people likely purchased some of those products,” SRHD spokesperson Julie Graham said.

The health district search a total of 12 local grocery stores at the Food and Drug Administration’s request and found contaminated and recalled products were still on sale at four stores.

“They pulled most items, but because the recall list keeps changing it makes it difficult to stay on top,” Graham said.

The list of recalled peanut items is long – 40 pages to be exact – with more items being added to the list daily.

“This is the widest spread recall we’ve had in the last decade at least,” Graham said.

The problem with the removal of tainted products from store shelves, according to the state health department, lies with the stores’ distributors and product manufacturers. It’s their responsibility to tell store owners who then pull the products from their shelves.

The situation is further exacerbated by the fact that the health district inspected just 12 stores for compliance. However they have only a handful of inspected and approximately 2,300 local stores, so there’s no way they can realistically inspect each and every store for compliance with each product recall.

For more information on the peanut recalls,
click here.