Extra cautious: Local retailers respond quickly to recalls

Star cookies sit on racks Tuesday at Baker’s Buddy to be sold in The Neighborhood Bakery in DeKalb. Recent recalls of peanut butter products have caused The Neighborhood Bakery owner John Henner to halt baking with peanut butter, even though he doesn’t sell any products with raw peanut butter and salmonella is killed in the oven process. Beck Diefenbach – bdiefenbach@daily-chronicle.com

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Recalls of food happen a lot more than consumers may think.

Every morning at 4 a.m., the grocery manager at Brown’s County Market in Sycamore checks e-mails, and there’s usually one with a subject line that reads “Product Recalls.”

“[The manager] goes to the floor and pulls it off the shelves, regardless of what it is,” said Dave Sell, the grocery store’s general manager. “There are more recalls than what you think.”

Jewel-Osco spokeswoman Karen May also explained the company’s protocol in a prepared statement.

“Once the company is notified of a vendor product recall or withdrawal, a notice is immediately sent out to all of our stores,” May said in a prepared statement. “In a matter of a few hours, the identified product is removed from all store shelves and isolated in our warehouses.”

And since a favorite gooey treat – peanut butter – has been recalled recently in products like crackers and cookies, Sell said the e-mails have been coming more frequently – up to six times a day – as more products continue to be recalled. Some of the latest items to be recalled have been dog biscuits and other pet foods.

“I’d say [the recall is] major because it’s so pervasive,” said Christel Springmire, an environmental health practitioner at the DeKalb County Health Department. “There are so many different products that were produced from these items.”

While there have been no reported cases in DeKalb County of the Salmonella strain that was found in peanut butter and peanut paste manufactured by Peanut Corp. of America at its Georgia plant, six cases matching the national outbreak have been identified in Fayette, Franklin, Lake, St. Clair, Will and Winnebago counties, according to a news release from the state health department.

Sell said that his store heard about the ever-growing peanut butter recall “right away” and that the company verifies recalls with the appropriate vendors and suppliers.

“Along every link in the chain, we all double check,” added John Henner, who owns The Neighborhood Bakery in DeKalb.

Reports in the media have also been helpful, retailers said.

Deanna Watkins, owner of Sweet Dream Desserts & Catering Inc. in Sycamore, said that she wasn’t contacted by manufacturers or suppliers regarding the safety of the peanut butter she buys to make desserts. Her source of information came from TV and newspaper reports.

“We make sure that our customers know we did check, we are aware of [the recall],” she said.

A few customers have been wary, but peanut butter is a more common concern than other ingredients because so many have allergies to nuts, Watkins said.

Customers are encouraged to call their local stores or bakeries if they are concerned, Sell said.

Just as retailers have pulled recalled products from their shelves, Henner said his bakery is taking an extra precaution by halting use of peanut butter to make cookies until the outbreak blows over – even though the Salmonella bacterium would be killed off during the baking process, and nothing is sold with raw peanut butter.

The small amount they have on hand, just 10 pounds, is being stored in the freezer until they’re 100 percent assured it’s safe, he said.

“[Peanut butter is] not a high-use item for us,” Henner said. “Suppose we had a recall on flour. That would be a real office nightmare.”

The DeKalb County Health Department has also taken measures to ensure public safety, by calling all retail stores in the county to make sure they’re aware of the recall, Springmire said. They’re also checking for recalled products during routine inspections, but the department’s main role is a resource, she said.