Snack and cereal company, Kellogg has initiated an investigation in salmonella contamination in its peanut butter crackers. The company has announced removal of Austin and Keebler branded peanut butter snacks from the stores.

The crackers include Toasted peanut butter sandwich, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cheese and peanut butter sandwich, peanut butter-chocolate sandwich and peanut butter sandwich crackers.

Kellogg has also said that there are no reports of any consumer falling sick after consuming any of the products with the affected peanut butter. The move to remove the infected products from the stores and putting a hold on inventory is self initiated, precautionary measure by the company. The company has also urged its customers not to eat any of the mentioned products until the regulatory officials complete their investigation.

Kellogg uses peanut butter supplied by the Peanut Corp of America in its crackers. Kellogg also said that it distributes the products to bakeries, candy companies and ice cream manufacturers. Minnesota health officials had detected strains of salmonella in the peanut butter by PCA.

Larry Beuchat, a professor at the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety, says salmonella can survive in uncooked foods. "From the work we've done here, we would predict that the salmonella would survive in the filling that is used for crackers, for example, for several weeks, if not months," he says.