Peanut Farmers Head to Big Apple

NEW YORK — As part of efforts to rebuild consumer confidence in peanut products, the National Peanut Board will set up a pavilion in Vanderbilt Hall in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal today and tomorrow to meet consumers, answer recall questions and give away samples of peanuts, peanut butter and other peanut items.

“No one is more deeply disturbed by the recent salmonella crisis than the thousands of USA peanut farmers and their families,” said Roger Neitsch, a Texas peanut farmer and chairman of the National Peanut Board, a research and promotion organization funded by peanut growers.

Participating manufacturers include Hampton Farms, Mars, Moon Pie, Peanut Butter & Co., Planters, Smithfield Foods/The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg, Snyder’s of Hanover and Sunland.

The event comes at a time when more than 2,000 products made with ingredients manufactured by Peanut Corp. of America have been recalled since early January. The Atlanta-based Peanut Board wants to get the message across that major national brands of jarred peanut butter found in grocery stores have not been among the products recalled, and a vast array of other peanut butters and peanut products are also unaffected.

At present, the Peanut Board does not plan to execute similar event in supermarkets, a board spokeswoman told SN.

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