This Walmart Product Was Involved In One Of The Biggest Peanut Butter Recalls In History

Peanut butter is a versatile pantry staple. It doesn't matter if you're using peanut butter to upgrade your popcorn, enjoying a classic PB&J, or sneaking a spoonful straight from the jar; there's almost no wrong way to enjoy it (barring food allergies). That said, even the best treats can sometimes be contaminated during production, and when they are, it can lead to big recalls. This includes the major one Walmart's Great Value peanut butter went through in 2006 and 2007.

In 2007, a recall was issued for two brands of jarred peanut butter: the Peter Pan brand owned by Post Holdings and Great Value, the Walmart store brand. An outbreak of Salmonella serotype Tennessee contaminated a large quantity of jars that were then shipped across the nation. Salmonella is a common food-borne illness that can cause a variety of symptoms, including digestive upset. For vulnerable populations, including the young, seniors, and immunocompromised people, these symptoms can turn dangerous. Salmonella can infect a wide variety of foods, including both fresh foods like the basil in the Trader Joe's 2024 recall and prepackaged goods like peanut butter.

The 2006/07 outbreak was first reported in November 2006, then confirmed as an outbreak in a February 5-13 investigation in 2007. The source was a peanut butter processing plant in Georgia owned by ConAgra Foods. The recall was issued on February 14th, involving a huge amount of peanut butter. The exact quantity is unknown, but ConAgra recalled all peanut butter it had produced going back as far as January 2004.

In total, 628 people became sick from the contaminated peanut butter. Thankfully, unlike more serious recalls such as the Aldi 2023 cantaloupe recall, there were no deaths as a result of this particular outbreak. Out of the 628 infected, 20% (approximately 125 people) were hospitalized.

The recall wasn't the end of the case, though. In May of 2015, ConAgra was hit with criminal charges for shipping the tainted food. The company pled guilty and paid around $11 million in total fines, none of which went to the victims of the tainted products. Company representatives stated that no one knew the peanut butter was contaminated before it shipped. However, they were aware that, in Georgia, its products tested positive for Salmonella twice in 2004.

There's no denying the 2006/2007 recall was a big one, but it wasn't the largest peanut butter recall in history. That dubious honor goes to another outbreak of Salmonella in 2008 and 2009, which was traced to the Peanut Corporation of America. The company didn't sell jarred peanut butter directly but rather provided peanut products to companies to then be made into other foods. The outbreak affected 716 people across 46 states and one person in Canada, causing as many as nine deaths. In that case, 3,900 products across 200 companies were recalled, and the company lost about $1.5 billion later that year, leading to its bankruptcy.