Database of recalled peanut items has over 1800 listings

It seems like every day we're hearing more about the recalls of food items that contain peanuts, but I did not fully appreciate the scope of  what was going on until I saw the database of recalled items at http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm .

There are over 1800 items in this database. 1844 at this count. You can search it for keyword, brand name, or even UPC code (there's a list of product names you can browse as well if you don't want to search.)

It's kind of startling what's in here. Do a search for organic and you'll get over 90 results. There are even dog treats listed in this database as well as stuff that doesn't come immediately to mind (peanut wing sauce in one-gallon containers.) When you click on the name of the product you get a little more information including lot numbers and stock numbers, and sometimes even a picture. Unfortunately all the information is not available for all of the products.

If you don't feel like browsing OR searching, you can download the whole list in XML, PDF, or Excel spreadsheet format.

I had a brief exchange with a guy from US Department of Health and Human Services today, and he pointed me to this astounding outreach page about the peanut recall: http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/. There are blogs. There are e-mail alerts.  There are video channels. There are podcasts. There are e-cards you can send to friends and family. There are Twitter feeds. There are widgets for distributing data. You can get -- I am not kidding -- a "Salmonella Badge" for the social network of your choice.

What I wouldn't give to go over to the HHS Center for Social Media and sit in on one of THEIR brainstorming sessions...