Jan 9, 2009 10:19 pm US/Central
Experts Track Down Source Of Salmonella Outbreak
(WCCO)
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It isn't yet known if the peanut butter is the reason all those other people across the country got sick. (File)
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Minnesota health experts think they've figured out the food that made at least 30 Minnesotans sick and may have poisoned hundreds more across the country.
The Health Department says one person in Minnesota died after getting salmonella.
Institutions like schools, universities and nursing homes use King Nut brand peanut butter, which Minnesota state health officials say is the common link between all the people who got sick in the state.
It was some good-old detective work that State Epidemiologist Stephanie Meyer and other state workers did to find the salmonella source. They looked for what was similar between all 30 people who had the bacteria in Minnesota.
"We were able to look at the types of things that these institutions receive. So all the foods that get shipped in, all various things that they're receiving," said Meyer. "So when we do that, we can see commonalities among different places, and in this instance, we saw that several institutions were receiving King Nut."
As it turns out, a nursing home in Northern Minnesota still had a five-pound container of King Nut peanut butter that was open.
Workers at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture started testing that container on Wednesday. Friday, they got those first tests back, showing that the peanut butter was the problem in Minnesota.
"We'll see how the investigation unfolds, but we're really hoping that this will help and that it will help actually tie the national investigation together, too," she said.
It isn't yet known if the peanut butter is the reason all those other people across the country got sick.
The peanut butter can't be bought at the grocery store. Only certain institutions use it. If any still have it, state workers urge them not to use it anymore.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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