Peter Pan Peanut Butter is Back: But Will it Fly Off the Shelves?

Peter Pan Peanut Butter is Back: But Will It Fly Off the Shelves?

Salmonella Poisoning

Peter Pan Peanut Butter will be returning to grocery store shelves some time during August 2007, after a seven-month hiatus due to reports of potential salmonella poisoning.

The product is manufactured at one plant in Georgia. The salmonella is being blamed on faulty roof sprinkler which was leaking.

This consumer product enjoyed one of the top spots on the peanut butter food chain, as it was the third most popular peanut butter in the U.S. (Financial Post)

In February of 2007, Peter Pan's manufacturer, ConAgra recalled all of their Peter Pan peanut butter after the product was thought to be related to four or five (depending on which reports you read) deaths. The deaths were thought to be caused by salmonella poisoning from the product.

The CDC has attributed 625 cases of illness to this consumer product.

Peter Pan By the Numbers

There are some minor discrepancies on death an illness numbers, depending on the source. Let's examine this consumer product by the numbers:

$1 - the amount of money on a coupons being given to consumers to buy the re-launched consumer brand
3 - This consumer product was the third most popular peanut butter
3 out of 5 - the number of retailers who will re-shelve this product with the same amount of shelf space (Financial Post)
4 or 5 - Number of deaths attributed to the salmonella poisoning
47 - number of states whose consumers were made ill by the product
80 - Nubmer of years the brand has been around (ConAgra)
100% - ConAgra is promising a 100% satisfaction guarantee to consumers
625-628 - Number of people according to the Centers for Disease Control who reportedly became ill after eating this product
1928 - The year the brand was started (PeterPan.com)
2111 - Product code of the tainted product

It's Back: But Will You Eat It?

Peter Pan peanut butter may be returning to the grocer store shelves, but will consumers buy it? Is seven months long enough to develop a new favorite peanut butter?

Peanut butter eaters had to find a substitute in the seven months that the tainted peanut butter was gone from the shelves.

Even with a "clean bill of health" will Peter Pan still sound as tasty to consumers? Or will the Peter Pan brand die a slow death?

I grew up on this brand. It is sweet, creamy and rich, and nothing else compares to it. But the deaths and the illnesses have soured my taste for this product.

Logically, the same thing could happen to any other brand of peanut butter. Any other food product could become tainted or contaminated. I know this, yet the Peter Pan peanut butter will not be flying off the shelf into my grocery cart.

Sources

ConAgra

Financial Post

Peter Pan