No Peanut Butter at School

You may have received notice that our school district is not serving peanut butter for the time being.  Due to the massive and ongoing recall of peanut butter by Sunland which supplies many companies operating under various brand names, our district believes the safest course is to remove peanut butter from the menu for now even though the product we use has not been named in the recall.  If you would like to see the recall list and check your own shelves, visit the FDA site here and make sure to scroll down.



Here's the letter we received from Sea Cliff School principal Chris Zublionis:

Dear Sea Cliff Families,

As many of you may be aware, there has been a recent recall of Sunland Peanut Butters purchased at Trader Joe’s and other food retailers. We hope this information will be helpful to all of those families who purchase and serve peanut butter or other nut butters at home which may be involved in this recall.

Many of the brands included in the recall are labeled organic or "all natural," and major peanut butter brands like Jif, Skippy and Peter Pan are not a part of it. An The recall includes nut butters and nut products sold at Whole Foods Market, Target, Safeway, Costco, Fresh & Easy, Harry and David, Sprouts, Heinen's, Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, Giant Food of Landover, Md., and several other stores since 2010.

Some of those retailers used Sunland ingredients in items they prepared and packaged themselves or sold the peanut butter in jars labeled with a store brand. Some stores and companies that used Sunland products as ingredients have issued additional recalls.

The products recalled include peanut butters, almond butters, cashew butters, tahini, and blanched and roasted peanut products. The expanded recall this week added several varieties of flavored butters and spreads, including Sunland's Thai Ginger Butter, Chocolate Butter and Banana Butter. Brand names included are Target's Archer Farms, Safeway's Open Nature, Earth Balance, Fresh & Easy, Late July, Heinen's, Joseph's, Natural Value, Naturally More, Peanut Power Butter, Serious Food, Snaclite Power, Sprouts Farmers Market, Sprouts, Sunland and Dogsbutter.

As a precaution, The USDA has issued a recall on Peanut Butter products distributed through their food distribution program until further notice. 

While we have been advised that the product we received through the USDA distribution program is safe and remains outside of the recall, in an effort to take keep all students and faculty safe, we will voluntarily remove peanut butter from all menus until the USDA has assured us it is safe to begin offering it again.

Thank you,

Chris Zublionis