Skippy Voluntarily Recalls 161,692 Pounds of Peanut Butter

Skippy voluntarily recalled some of its peanut butter products that may contain small amounts of stainless steel on March 30, 2021 (Skippy/FDA)

Skippy is voluntarily recalling some of its peanut butter products due to the possibility that a limited number of jars may contain small amounts of stainless steel, according to a March 30 statement released by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The American brand, which is owned by Hormel Foods, is recalling 9,353 cases or 161,692 total pounds worth of items that have use-by dates from early May 2023.

The recall includes a limited number of dates of Skippy Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut, Skippy Reduced Fat Chunky Peanut Butter Spread and Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter Blended with Plant Protein.

According to the FDA, the small fragment of stainless steel potentially contained in the jars comes from a piece of manufacturing equipment. The manufacturing facility’s internal detection systems identified the concern.

The products were sold in 18 states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

As of yet, there have been no consumer complaints regarding the recall, and all retailers that sell the affected products have been notified, the FDA said.

"Skippy Foods, LLC, out of an abundance of caution and with an emphasis on the quality of its products, is issuing the recall to ensure that consumers are made aware of the issue," the FDA said.

No other sizes, varieties, or packages of Skippy brand peanut butter or peanut butter spreads are included in this recall.

"From our family to yours, we want you to know that we take the quality of our products very seriously and apologize to our fans for this situation," Skippy said in a statement. "Our company is committed to product quality and will continue to invest in our processes to ensure the quality and wholesomeness of our products."

Skippy said that customers who purchased products impacted by the recall can return it to the retailer where they bought it for an exchange.

While rare, contamination of food with foreign objects such as pieces of metal has occurred over the years in an array of products including Kraft Foods Macaroni & Cheese products, pasta mix products made by Bay Valley Foods, and Kellogg's Bite Size Frosted Unfrosted Mini-Wheats, to name a few.

If ingested, sharp foreign objects such as glass or metal can injure the esophagus walls and cause bleeding in the mediastinum, the area that separates the lungs, according to Very Well Health. Although in some cases a foreign object can pass through the body causing no harm.