"The outbreak, which came on the heels of a recall of bagged spinach contaminated with E. coli last year, touched off renewed debate about food safety when investigators linked the illnesses to peanut butter made at a ConAgra Foods Inc. plant in Georgia. ConAgra ceased production and recalled the product in February."

"In mid-February the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had linked 288 cases of food-borne illness in 39 states to peanut butter consumption. By March 7, that total had climbed to 425 people in 44 states. As of May 22, some 200 more people in another three states were infected."

"The CDC said the rate of new infections has tapered off and it urged people to immediately discard any remaining jars of Peter Pan or Great Value peanut butter with a product code beginning with 2111."

""This outbreak demonstrates the potential for widespread illness from a broadly distributed contaminated product, one that had not previously been implicated in a food-borne illness outbreak in the United States," the CDC
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