The Associated Press has reported that all eight Girl Scout cookie varieties are free of the salmonella which has tainted national supplies of peanut butter. None of the Girl Scout cookies use peanut butter from the Peanut Corporation of America, which was inadvertently responsible for distributing salmonella tainted peanut butter across the country.

From Peanut Corporation of America, the peanut butter was sent to production facilities used by many national companies. The tainted peanut butter was not sold as a stand alone product for consumers to buy at the store, so jars of peanut butter are safe. Instead, it was used strictly as an ingredient by other companies such as Kellogg and Little Debbie, which have recalled the relevant products.

The salmonella outbreak actually began last September, but it has taken until now for the source to be identified. Many of the people sickened by the salmonella did not specifically recall eating peanut butter, perhaps partly because it was only an ingredient in the items that they did eat. So far, the CDC reports that 454 people have been sickened in 43 states and Canada.

The salmonella appears to be sourced from a single production facility in Blakely, Georgia. From Blakely, the tainted peanut butter was shipped all across the country. Unfortunately, this kind of incident only highlights the dangers of our nationwide food production and distribution system. In the past, a problem like this would have been localized. Call it the down side of "efficiency of scale."