Pistachios from California plant recalled due to salmonella

by: DarrellNC

Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 06:00:47 AM PDT

Got any pistachios at home?  Don't eat them--but don't throw them away either.  The FDA is issuing this advisory after a Central Valley plant issued a recall.

A California food processing plant is voluntarily recalling up to 1 million pounds of roasted pistachio products that may have been contaminated with salmonella, the Food and Drug Administration announced Monday.

The nuts came from Setton Farms in Terra Bella, California, about 75 miles south of Fresno. They were largely distributed in 2,000-pound containers to food wholesalers who would then package them for resale or incorporate them as ingredients in other products, such as ice cream and trail mix.

Unlike the Peanut Corporation of America affair, an outbreak didn't trigger this recall.  Rather, the recall came after Kraft found strains of salmonella during routine testing.

This could have a massive ripple effect--Setton is the second-biggest pistachio processor in the nation.

As I mentioned earlier, the FDA wants consumers not to eat any pistachio products for now.  But if you have any on hand, don't throw them out--more recalls could come later, and keeping them on hand will make it easier to trace the contamination.

The FDA is setting up a searchable database of affected products--but it isn't up yet as of 8:45 am Eastern.