Notice I say the risk is theoretically eliminated. . . I want to emphasize that cooking to proper tempertures is only step one. Countless illnesses are caused by cross-contamination. So, if you touch the baked dog treats with hands that just rolled the raw dough, or set the finished dog treats on the same board you used to roll the dough, you’ve potentially re-contaminated them.

I commend you for putting your dog’s health first. Many folks insist that dogs are not as susceptible to Salmonella as humans, but from what I’ve read, the verdict is still out. Since my dog can’t tell me when she feels bad, I’d rather not put her at risk.

The recipe has been adapted to work with just about any kind of fat, so peanut butter is not essential for good dog treats. Many times, Lisa has begun to make dog treats only to find I’ve eaten all the peanut butter, so she’s ground nuts in a food processor, or used almond butter instead.

Nicole (aka June1)

If you use a store bought container of peanut butter for the recipe, based on what the FDA is saying, you should be ok to use that. You are right to be wary, this outbreak has been going on since September of 2008, to date, over 150 products containing peanut butter have been recalled, and illnesses are still being reported.

This is an ingredient based contamination problem that appears to be associated with one company plant in Georgia. Here’s an excerpt of what the Center for Disease Control reports as of January 23, 2009: Department of Agriculture Laboratory isolated the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium from an open 5-pound container of King Nut brand creamy peanut butter. ” King Nut creamy peanut butter is distributed in many states to establishments such as long-term care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities, restaurants, delis, cafeterias, and bakeries. It is not sold directly to consumers and is not known to be distributed for retail sale in grocery stores.”

The apparent difficulty is in tracking down all the processed foods containing the King Nut peanut butter paste, used in an unknown number of food products. The FDA must investigate primary, secondary, tertiary, and possibly additional downstream sources to identify the all the potential products that may contain this contaminated ingredient.

To date, there has not been any reports of a recall on store bought jars of peanut butter. We have several calls in to the Food and Drug Administration, and are working on a post, possibly for this Friday.

Hope this helps.

I know cats are different critters totally, but have you ever tried these with cats?