Bad Peanut Butter

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The J.M. Smucker Company has announced a voluntary recall of some of its Jif Peanut Butter products due to possible salmonella contamination.  The peanut butter affected was manufactured at the company's Lexington, Kentucky, plant.   The product range code for the bad peanut butter is 1274425 through 2140425.  (Those numbers represent the first seven digits of the 11-digit product code featured on the peanut butter container.  Digits five through seven (425) represent the Lexington plant.

I don't generally pay much attention to recalls because 1.) they seem to be so prevalent as to numb consumers to their true impact, and 2.) they rarely, if ever, impact me personally.  But extra-crunchy Jif is my favorite peanut butter, so I did notice when the news was being bandied about on the internet yesterday.  Still, I did not panic and rush to the cupboard to check my stash.

But then last night as I was lying in bead reading, sometime around 9:00 p.m. (the excitement in my life knows no bounds!), my telephone suddenly rang.  People who are important in my life know two things:  I do not respond well to texts, and I don't like to be called after dark.  So when I finally pulled myself up off of the bed to see which idiot was breaking rule number two, I saw that it was an 800 number - and laid back down without  answering.  

This morning I learned that last night's call had been important after all.  It was from the "Jif Consumer Relations Team" at J.M. Smucker alerting me to the fact that I may have purchased some of their tainted peanut butter at Costco.  I learned that because during the night the Smucker Company  had also sent me an email on Costco letterhead advising of the recall and saying that I may have purchased some of the bad peanut butter.

I had one almost full large jar of extra-crunchy Jif that I had purchased in a two-pack from Costco.  I had either already eaten the other jar, or given it to my son, Tim, who is sometimes with me when I shop at Costco in the Kansas City area.  My product code showed that it had been made at the Lexington plant, but the number was just outside of the affected range.  Because I have felt ill for the past few days, I threw the almost-full jar away anyway and notified Tim and his family, too.

Here is my takeaway from all of this peanut butter drama.  I know that our privacy is severely limited by the powers of technology - and that Alexa listens to every thing I say and takes notes - and Google reads all of my email and then inundates me with ads regarding anything that I might have even just thought about, but at some point it is a bit of a comfort to know that a merchandizing giant like Costco can punch in a couple of keystrokes on its corporate computers and know who to quickly notify in case of a product recall.  

Technology can be an inherent danger to free people, such as at times when authoritarian forms of government are on the rise, but at other times it can be a blessing when it is harnessed for the public good.

If only there was a way to keep the good uses while eliminating the corporate and government spying!

Costco will reimburse its customers who were caught up in the peanut butter recall.

Thank you, Costco, for looking out for your customers and for responding so quickly!