Susanna Cox used to feed her two boys Wal-Mart’s Great Value store-brand peanut butter three times a week. Then they started getting sick: stomach aches, diarrhea and fevers. The kids were suffering from the classic symptoms of salmonella poisoning. “I watched them get sicker and sicker,” Cox said. “It was horrible. I laid there and cried with them.” Cox and her husband are now suing Conagra, which owns a plant that processes some jars of Great Value and Peter Pan peanut butter.

Cox’s attorney, Drew Falkenstein, an associate at Marler Clark said, “It’s important to make sure that sick people or injured people are compensated for what they’ve been through, otherwise there would be no incentive for these companies to change their ways.”

Although the Food and Drug Administration is urging families to throw out all Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter bought since May, and Conagra is urging consumers to send in the lids off the jars, we suggest that consumers have the peanut butter tested first.  We also suggest that people who are  still ill seek medical attention and request a stool culture for salmonella.  For more information about salmonella, see www.about-salmonella.com and for the status of salmonella litigation, see www.salmonellalitigation.com.  As of 11:30 we have been contacted by nearly 1,750 people by phone or email.