Over the past couple of weeks, there has been a nationwide scare about people eating many products that contain peanuts, such as the obvious peanut butter.
But also, many other products that people would not consider contain peanut extracts, such as oils, ice cream and many canned products seemingly unrelated to peanuts.
The scare surrounds a series of salmonella contaminations that has caused the recall of millions of food items not only across America but also in many other countries around the world.
This “secret†addition of products derived from the humble peanut has surprised many consumers. A group of people perhaps even more surprised to discover the use of peanuts in food are pet owners.
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has had so many enquiries about the presence of peanut products within animal foods it has issued a list of animal food items that contain peanut extracts that have been recalled under their legal instruction.
The organization says it has been bombarded with calls and enquiries from worried pet owners. They do state however that as far as they know there have been no cases of pets being stricken with salmonella.
They warn pet owners to look out for any indications of the disease, which include diarrhea, fever, a general lack of energy and vomiting.
The FDA also warns that salmonella contaminated pet food can be harmful to humans and can easily be transferred by hand to human food.
