Due to the recent salmonella outbreak, the federal government is advising consumers to avoid cookies, cakes, ice cream and crackers made with peanut butter or peanut paste, while it still continues to investigate the disease who killed six people and sickened at least 485 others across the country.

The source of the outbreak is clear now, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has linked it with peanut paste and peanut butter manufactured after July 1 in a Georgia factory owned by Peanut Corp. of America. 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.

As a result of the outbreak, the company has paused all production in its Georgia facility. However, it's still unclear how the peanut products were contaminated with salmonella, and that's because the germ is carried by animal feces. Foods can become contaminated by infected food handlers who do not wash their hands with soap after using the bathroom.

For now, several of the nation's largest retailers and manufacturers, such as Safeway, Kroger and Meijer, are recalling products that may contain the contaminated peanut butter or paste. The Grocery Manufacturers Association has asked the Obama administration to significantly increase funding for several food safety programs in the hope that a robust inspection program will reduce contamination outbreaks and restore consumer confidence.

However, major-label peanut butter is not suspected to be contaminated with salmonella and it's therefore considered safe to eat, according to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Even so, panicked consumers are avoiding all kinds of peanut butter, so the major companies will surely suffer, even if they're not guilty.