Peanut butter product recall expanding; be careful in which products you choose with the creamy stuff in them; 8 people now dead

The recall of peanut butter-based products expanded today, and shoppers should be questioning all grocers about the safety of what they're selling outside of jars of the stuff.

I write this because the Kroger's where I shop still continues to sell peanut butter products as a special of 10 for $10. With the growing recalls, how do grocers know which products are safe?

So ask.

Here is what The New York Times reports tonight:

WASHINGTON — One of the largest food contamination scares in the nation’s history grew far larger on Wednesday as a Georgia peanut plant that federal regulators said knowingly shipped contaminated food recalled even more products.

Already, more than 400 consumer products, including Jenny Craig nutritional bars and Keebler Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, have been recalled after eight people died and more than 500 people in 43 states, half of them children, were sickened by salmonella poisoning.

On Wednesday, the Peanut Corporation of America, whose plant in Blakely, Ga., is the source of the contamination, expanded its recall from all products made since July to all those made since Jan. 1, 2007. The company supplied some of the largest food makers in the nation.

“We don’t have a good idea of how much of that product is still out there,” said Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s food center.