Girl Scout cookie sales are continuing across the area with assurances that none of the cookies are connected to the peanut producer linked to a deadly salmonella outbreak.
Area scouts began receiving the cookies Jan. 5, and sales and deliveries will continue through the end of the month, said Gina Garvin, spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of Northeastern Kansas and Northwestern Missouri.
“We’ve been in constant contact with the bakers and they reassured us that our cookies are not coming from the affected source,” Garvin said.
The peanut butter used in Tagalongs and Do-si-dos and other Girl Scout cookies comes from sources other than the Peanut Corp. of America, which is the focus of the government’s investigation, the bakers say in statements posted on their Web sites.
Kansas City area cookies came from the Richmond, Va.-based ABC Bakers, which is a division of Interbake Foods. Other Girl Scout cookies are prepared by Louisville, Ky.-based Little Brownie Bakers. Garvin said ABC Bakers reported that the FDA visited ABC’s peanut producer, Hampton Farms, a week ago and found no concerns.
So far, more than 470 people have gotten sick in 43 states, and at least 90 had to be hospitalized. At least six deaths are being blamed on the outbreak. Salmonella is a bacteria and the most common source of food poisoning in the United States, causing diarrhea, cramping and fever.
The local Girl Scout council, which serves a 47-county area, sent out reassurances to the troops Sunday and today that they could pass on to their customers, Garvin said.
Read the complete story at kansascity.com
.JPG)
Comments