If there are three letters Brittany Phillips loves, they are P, B and J ‘-‘- she eats one of the classic lunchbox sandwiches, or its slightly less-loved variation, peanut butter and banana, almost every day.
Despite the recent salmonella outbreak in peanut products that began in December and has spread across 43 states, including Massachusetts, Phillips, a College of Engineering sophomore, said she will continue enjoying her peanut butter sandwiches.
Although the chance of salmonella reaching Boston University is minimal, the Campus Convenience and City Convenience locations on campus have recalled all peanut butter and peanut butter paste products. The strain of the disease, salmonella Typhimurium, has so far infected 480 people and killed six, Robert Tauxe, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, said Wednesday. The number of infected people has since risen to 485, and the death toll to seven, according to the Associated Press.
Despite this, Myles Standish Hall, Shelton Hall, Towers and Warren Towers dining halls continue to serve peanut butter. Dining Services spokesman Scott Rosario did not return calls or emails to his office for comment.
Phillips said she trusts the school to keep her safe.
‘They have to keep us safe,’ she said. ‘It’s kind of like how people ride roller coasters. The Six Flags people are supposed to keep us safe.’
Salmonella is a bacterium that lives in the intestines and is usually found in poultry and produce, making this particular strain of salmonella worrisome because its existence in peanut butter is rare, BU environmental health professor David Ozonoff said. The symptoms of salmonella are similar to that of food poisoning, causing diarrhea, cramps or fever. Symptoms are likely to occur between eight to 36 hours after eating a contaminated meal.
The most common treatment for salmonella is time, not medication, Ozonoff said.
‘Some people think that the use of antibiotics prolongs the infection rather than improves it,’ he said.
The BU-owned 660 Corporation operates CityCo and CampCo stores around BU’s campus. Although CityCo and CampCo have been affected by the recall of certain peanut butter and peanut butter paste products, the effect on sales is minimal, Director of Operations Chris Christensen said.
‘In terms of sales, it’s not awful because there are still alternatives out there,’ he said.
Keebler and Little Debbie brand peanut butter crackers are currently off the shelves in 660 Corporation’s stores on campus.
Stephen Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said salmonella typhimurium was discovered in products manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America, and is limited to their processing plants.
Christensen said it will be a few weeks before recalled products will be restocked. Recalls like this usually ‘cast a much wider blanket than is necessary,’ but this is only done to protect the consumer from potentially contaminated products, Christensen said.
‘I think students, and customers in general, understand this is about their safety,’ Christensen said.’ ‘Often these products might not be contaminated, but the recall is to avoid the potential for some kind of spread of salmonella.’
Contributing reporter Erin Caron contributed to this story.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
