Kentucky Recieved Salmonella Laced Peanut After Ice Storm

As if things are not bad enough…

Peanut butter, contaminated by salmonella, was sent to Kentucky after an apparent communication breakdown among federal officials. The peanut butter was sent to help feed hundreds of thousands of people left without power at the height of last week’s storm.

The company that packaged the meals, Red Cloud Foods Inc., sent a memo dated Jan. 19 to the arm of the Department of Defense responsible for getting them to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But FEMA said it didn’t learn of the recall until Wednesday, more than two weeks later.

The kits, which contained entrees, cookies, chips and sometimes peanut butter packets, were assembled in September for relief efforts after Hurricane Ike, said Bob Harrison, chairman of South Elgin, Ill.-based Red Cloud Foods Inc.

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