The peanut butter salmonella contamination earlier this year - which caused several fatalities - not surprisingly caused a dip in the sales of the product. But now that the situation has subsided, sales of jarred peanut butter have returned to normal patterns. For the four-week period ended April 18th, sales rose 2.7 percent over the previous four-week period, and were up 10.7 percent over the same period a year ago.
"The fact is that the contamination was limited to one supplier, and none of the big name brands were affected. Consumers seem to have gotten the message and resumed their usual buying habits," said Todd Hale, Senior Vice President, Consumer and Shopper Insights at Nielsen.
