Students Get Peanut Butter Back After Recall

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Updated: 7:24 PM Mar 25, 2009 Students Get Peanut Butter Back After Recall Grand Island Grand Island Public Schools have put peanut butter back on the menu months after a recall of peanut products. Posted: 5:25 PM Mar 25, 2009 Reporter: Sara Geake Email Address: sara.geake@kolnkgin.com

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Months after a salmonella outbreak in peanut products faded from the headlines, some Nebraska students are finally getting their peanut butter back.

Grand Island Public Schools brought it back Wednesday.

The director of Nutrition Services says it's because the recall list has slowed, and she hasn't seen a new product hit the list in the past 30 days.

It's pizza day at Walnut Middle School, but after two months without, Debra Oxford is asking for a sandwich with peanut butter.

"I usually didn't eat very much school food because if I didn't like what we were having I usually got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich," she said.

"We've had a hard time satisfying some kids that want to eat peanut butter everyday for lunch," said Kris Spellman, director of Nutrition Services.

G.I.P.S. yanked peanut butter from the menu in January during a nation-wide recall of peanut products, even though peanut butter was not part of that recall.

"We're dealing with a susceptible population with kids, preschool kids even that are more likely to be affected by food born illness," said Spellman. "We try to err on the side of cautiousness just like taking peanut butter off the menu even though peanut butter wasn't actually implicated in the recall."

Because of these actions, G.I. school officials can't remember an instance of food-related illness.

That's thanks in part to the Food Distribution Program.

"If there is ever any kind of concern the agents contact the schools right away. They can even do it with a phone call directly to the food service director's or manager's home," said Spellman.

She says they went through a similar recall a few years ago with ground beef.

Because G.I. Public Schools plan their meals six weeks in advance, they had to scramble for substitutions.

The peanut recall was much easier; and now, there are no products the Centers for Disease Control or the F.D.A. have suggested stay off the lunch menu.

The peanut products recall was one of the largest in U.S. history.

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