Mon Jan 19, 2009

(Reuters) - General Mills Inc voluntarily recalled two varieties of peanut butter-flavored snack bars, saying peanut butter in the products was sourced from Peanut Corp of America and may be contaminated with salmonella.

U.S. health authorities told consumers on Saturday to avoid eating products that contain peanut butter until they can determine the scope of an outbreak of salmonella food poisoning that may have contributed to six deaths.

General Mills, which also makes Cheerios cereal and Yoplait yogurt, said the products recalled were Larabar Peanut Butter Cookie flavor snack bars and JamFrakas Peanut Butter Blisscrisp flavor snack bars.

A combined 15,000 cases of product were involved, but no illnesses have been reported in connection with either product, the company said in a statement.

No other types, varieties or flavors of Larabar or JamFrakas products are being recalled, the company said, adding that no other General Mills products were involved or impacted.

The company at the center of the peanut butter recall case, Peanut Corporation of America, had said that it had been informed by the Food and Drug Administration that some samples of its products had tested positive for a salmonella strain that may have originated in a Blakely, Georgia, peanut processing plant.

(Reporting by Tenzin Pema in Bangalore; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

http://www.reuters.com/article/domestic ... ews&rpc=76