The peanut butter mystery

Posted at 11:29 AM on January 12, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Health, Schools

On Friday night, the Minnesota Department of Public Health traced a salmonella outbreak to a peanut butter sold primarily to institutions such as nursing homes and schools.

Today, a press release from the the Minnesota Pubic Schools trumpets:

Minneapolis Public Schools not affected by King Nut peanut butter recall

And it takes the honor also for world's shortest press release:

MINNEAPOLIS - MPS Nutrition Services does not serve peanut butter. We are not affected by the King Nut peanut butter recall.

A sign of my age, however, is that I think the big news here is that Minneapolis public schools don't serve peanut butter. I'll bet they don't even have "mystery meat" anymore. The times have changed, you whippersnappers.

Comments (1)

Many schools no longer serve peanut butter or any products that may contain nuts. The number of kids with nut allergies is on the rise (mine included). School districts are realizing that having a kid go into anaphylaxis on their watch is not such a good thing. Some allergies are severe enough that the allergic kid can't be in the room with nuts or eat at a table or use utensils that may have touched nuts.

The amazing thing to me is that more schools aren't on board with nut free schools, where kids aren't allowed to bring products containing nuts. While most public schools have gotten the message, many private schools see public school rules as excessive. They seem to be waiting until one of their students has a near death experience to implement this sensible policy.

Posted by Al | January 12, 2009 12:23 PM

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories