California Department of Public Health officials said peanut butter cookie dough sold during fundraisers at 13 schools may be tainted with salmonella. As a result, the products are being recalled and consumers are urged to dispose of the dough, which is packed in a 3-pound white plastic tub and labeled Sweet Success Peanut Butter Cookie Dough.

 

This is the latest recall amid a salmonella outbreak that may have caused six deaths and at least 485 infections across the nation.

 

The source of the outbreak is a Georgian factory owned by Peanut Corp. of America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The company supplies peanut butter and peanut paste to long-term-care and other institutions, food service companies and private-label manufacturers that use the products in cookies, cakes, crackers and other foods.

 

According to the California Department of Public Health, contaminated peanut butter from the Georgian plant may have been used to make the dough, which was distributed to schools in Alhambra, Baldwin Park, Barstow, La Puente, Los Angeles, South Gate, Reseda, Oxnard, Pasadena and Huntington Beach between Dec. 8 and Jan. 8. The cookie dough, which was not part of the school lunch program, was distributed by Sweet Success Fundraising in Ontario.

Spokeswoman for Sweet Success, Lilly Ceja said the company recalled the cookie dough as a precaution but added that the product should not be linked to the recent nationwide salmonella outbreak.

“It was a voluntary recall and has nothing to do with the production. The recall was just a precautionary measure,” she said.

On the other hand, spokesman for the California Department of Public Health Ken August said all 13 schools will remain on the warning list until further notice.