Food firms pull peanut butter items

Lab tests found salmonella in a 5-pound container of King Nut peanut butter from a Minnesota nursing home. (Minnesota Department of Health via Associated Press)

MILWAUKEE - General Mills Inc. and grocers Kroger Co. and Safeway Inc. have joined the growing list of food companies and retailers pulling items made with peanut butter amid a salmonella outbreak.

The California Department of Public Health also warned consumers yesterday not to handle or consume peanut butter cookie dough that was sold in more than a dozen schools in the state for a fund-raising program. The frozen dough was distributed by Sweet Success Fundraising Inc., of Ontario, Calif., and may have been contaminated, the department said.

The Food and Drug Administration has traced the outbreak to a Georgia plant owned by Peanut Corp. of America, which makes peanut butter and peanut paste and sells it to institutions and food companies.

The outbreak may have contributed to the deaths of six people and sickened more than 470 others in 43 states.

The government has advised consumers to avoid eating cookies, cakes, ice cream, and other foods containing peanut butter until health officials learn more about the contamination.

Peanut butter sold in jars to consumers is not included, officials said.