Schools put moratorium on peanut-based products

LIHU‘E — Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto last week directed all Hawai‘i schools to discontinue ordering and using peanut-based products on campuses until further notice, according to a Department of Education press release sent Tuesday.

While Hawai‘i public school breakfast and lunch cycle menus have not included peanut-based products for over two years, peanut-based products may have been purchased as part of a school-based snack or food service program. 

As a precautionary measure, Hawai‘i public school cafeteria managers were directed to conduct a review of food inventories. No products listed on the FDA’s recall list were found on cafeteria shelves.

“In light of the growing list of peanut-based recalled items by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the moratorium on peanut-based products in Hawai‘i’s public schools is an extra safety precaution,” Hamamoto said in the release.

According to the state Department of Health, none of the three known Hawai‘i cases of Salmonella Typhimurium that are linked with the nationwide outbreak has had a verifiable exposure to any of the peanut products identified on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recall list.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s investigation has traced the nationwide outbreak of salmonella sicknesses and deaths to Peanut Corporation of America.

A list of recalled products is available from the FDA at www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph.html#recalls