The nationwide peanut recall has caused all peanut products to be removed from dining facilities and Varsity Markets.

The Food and Drug Administration announced the peanut recall Jan. 23 after confirmation that a number of peanut products produced from a plant in Georgia, run by the Peanut Corporation of America, had been contaminated with salmonella. Quickly after the recall, Dining Services began to remove recalled peanut items from Munchie Mart shelves and peanut ingredients from dining recipes.

"What we do is we buy a majority of our food from three or four vendors," said Camp Howard, director of Dining Services. "Initially, all vendors sent a list of items they were recalling, and we were able to rapidly pull the same items from our shelves."

Some of the contaminated products removed from Vanderbilt shelves include peanut butter crackers, peanut butter cookies and a few varieties of Luna and Clif Bars made with peanut products.

Although peanut butter is not one of the recalled peanut items, Howard said Dining Services decided to remove all items containing peanuts.

"We would rather be safe than sorry. If we wait another week ... and peanut butter is in fact safe, we will put it on the shelf, but while it is still unknown we will wait," Howard said.

Due to the removal of peanut butter, some entrees offered at Vanderbilt restaurants have been taken off the menu.

"We (Rotiki) only have one product that contains peanut butter - the Elvis Monkey panini - so we have taken that off the menu," said senior and Rotiki staff member Nathaniel Buchheit. "It's one of the less popular items so it hasn't affected us too much."

Vanderbilt Medical Center has not seen any cases of salmonella related to the peanut recall, but there have been at least seven cases reported in Tennessee, according to Jerry Jones, assistant director of Medical Center News.

The contaminated peanuts cause salmonella. People infected with the bacteria usually contract fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps.