A spoonful straight out of the jar has gotten many a student through a



long exam session. A peanut butter sandwich is one of the easiest snacks a young person can make, and it is the rare baker

who doesn’t have a peanut butter cookie in repertory.

A contamination scare could not have touched a more iconic American flavor. Almost 900 products were recalled after salmonella tied to hundreds of illnesses was traced last month to a Georgia peanut factory.While peanut butter’s popularity has made this threat particularly troubling, it may also help its reputation survive intact.

More than 80 percent of the nation’s households have a jar or two in the cabinet, with smooth far and away the preferred texture. Tens of millions of individuals regularly buy cereal, cookies, ice cream and candy made with it. The business of selling peanut butter in the United States is worth nearly $900 million a year. There are times you just must have some, said Jess Denaro, a New York University student from Brooklyn.

And peanut butter has the recession going for it. When the economy goes bad, it’s one of the

cheap but nutritionally rich foods that

shoppers buy more of. There will be some specific categories that are going to do quite well, said Lynn

Dornblaser, new-product analyst for Mintel, a consumer research company. We firmly believe peanut butter is one of them. That’s not to say there won’t be a short fear-induced drop in sales, she said, although it’s too soon for any reliable figures, especially because the company that processed the contaminated peanut butter has increased its recall to include any foods made with its products since January 2007.

The facts of the poisoning are sobering. Officials have said that more than 500 people have become ill and 8 have been killed after eating peanut butter and peanut products from a poorly maintained plant in

Blakely, Ga., run by the Peanut Corporation of America. The peanut butter was delivered to nursing homes, schools and other institutions, and peanut products were used in hundreds of processed foods.

The recall doesn’t include branded peanut butters on supermarket shelves but still involves a wider array of

products than any other food recall in United States history.

The food items range from stuffed celery, frozen pad Thai, vegan cookies and trail mix to nut-topped ice cream novelties and candy. Though some well-known companies like Clif Bar, Kellogg’s and Hain Celestial are on the recall list, most of the products are store brands or sold under lesser-known labels. Even dog biscuits are implicated.