More Than 20,000 Peanut Butter Items Recalled Across 40 States by the FDA: What to Know

More than 20,000 peanut butter items have been recalled across 40 states by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

NEED TO KNOW

• The U.S. federal agency has classified the recall as Class II

• Ventura Foods LLC, which initiated the recall, "found pieces of blue plastic in a filter," per the FDA

Thousands ofpeanut butteritems have been recalled across dozens of states by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The U.S. federal agency has classified the recall asClass II, which means use of or exposure to affected products "may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote."

The recall was initiated on April 30, and the FDA assigned the Class II classification on Feb. 12. The agency has not listed an end date.

The recall covers various peanut butter products that were produced by Ventura Foods LLC. The company, which initiated the recall, "found pieces of blue plastic in a filter," per the FDA.

More than 20,000 single-serve peanut butter items and peanut butter-and-jelly combo packs are affected. Some were distributed by DYMA Brands, Inc., US Foods, Sysco Corporation, Gordon Food Service and Independent Marketing Alliance, among others, the FDA said.

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According to the FDA, the recalled peanut butter products were shipped to 40 states total: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

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A spokesperson for Ventura Foods LLC said in a statement, perNewsweek, "Ten months ago, DYMA Brands initiated a voluntary recall on various single-use peanut butter products due to the potential presence of a foreign material (plastic)."

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"While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation and classification process is thorough and can take time to complete, that timeline did not impact our actions. At the time the recall was initiated ... we acted with urgency to remove all potentially impacted product from the marketplace. This includes urging our customers, their distributors and retailers to immediately review their inventory, segregate and stop the further sale and distribution of any products subject to the recall," the statement continued.

"Protecting consumers remains our top priority, and we will continue to act swiftly and transparently as the FDA review progresses," added the Ventura Foods LLC spokesperson.

The company did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment on Sunday, Feb. 15.

A full list of items affected by the recall, which the FDA will continue to update, can be foundhere.

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February 15, 2026

More Than 20,000 Peanut Butter Items Recalled Across 40 States by the FDA: What to Know

More than 20,000 peanut butter items have been recalled across 40 states by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ...

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She was denied a legal abortion and sent to prison over an illegal one. Now she tells her story

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — She says she was let down at every step. By a partner who abandoned her when she was pregnant. By a health service that denied her a legalabortion. And by a justice system that sent her to a maximum-security prison for illegally terminating her pregnancy on her own.

Violet Zulu, a house cleaner inZambiaearning $40 a month, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2024 after representing herself in court with little understanding of the consequences of her actions. She didn't see her two children or other family members for nearly two years.

After word of her case reached international rights groups that helped her file an appeal, Zulu was freed last month. Activists say she represents many women in Africa who take desperate decisions when facing barriers to legal abortion services.

Her story has drawn little sympathy in her southern African nation, where parts of societyview abortionharshly. Her own mother said she agreed with her daughter's prison sentence, but said it should have been shorter.

Zulu spoke with The Associated Press as she pieces her life together again at the age of 26.

Turned away from care

She said she first attempted to access legal abortion services at a public clinic, which should have given her advice or services but turned her away. She then tried a private pharmacy, which requested 800 Zambian kwacha ($43) for abortion drugs, a month's salary for her.

She was already struggling to feed her two young sons, and she sometimes had to beg food from relatives.

She said her decision to drink an herbal concoction she prepared herself, one known for terminating pregnancies, was taken out of despair. She couldn't bear for her boys to have even less food if she had another child.

"I never wanted to abort my pregnancy, but it is the circumstances at home that forced me to do it," Zulu said in the interview at the two-room rented home with no running water that she shares with her children and parents.

"I was scared (when I took the concoction), but I didn't really care what would happen to me," she added.

In her court testimony, she explained what happened next: She delivered the fetus in a toilet, placed it in a sack and dropped it in a nearby stream. She said she confided in a friend, but word got out and neighbors reported her to police.

Zulu, who left school in the eighth grade, was never offered free legal counsel despite the right to request it. She represented herself in court and pleaded guilty to the offense of procuring her own abortion. She said she didn't understand the legality of abortion and thought she would receive a warning.

A system that failed

"This is a system that failed Violet," said Rosemary Kirui, a legal adviser for Africa for the abortion rights group Center for Reproductive Rights, which campaigned for Zulu's release and helped with her appeal. "It is not that she did not try. It is that she could not afford the services, yet she should be able to access them as a citizen of Zambia."

Zulu should have been eligible for a free abortion under a provision that allows doctors in Zambia to consider risks to the well-being of her existing children, said Sharon Williams, country director for the Women and Law in Southern Africa advocacy group.

But Zulu was not aware of that, largely because of the secrecy, stigma and shame around abortion, which is not advertised by Zambia's public health system.

Zambia's health ministry did not respond to questions about her case.

Part of the problem, Williams said, is that Zambia has legalized abortion while also defining itself in its constitution as a strongly Christian country.

Abortions are still largely restricted in Africa, with few countries allowing them for reasons other than threats to the health of the mother or the fetus. Even in countries like Zambia,religious beliefs, conservative values rooted in local cultures or a lack of information make access to legal procedures difficult, according to health and rights groups.

Williams said Zulu's case ought to lead to a national conversation over whether Zambian authorities should better educate communities over the legal right to abortion.

"I think now that we have this judgment, we're ready for the conversation," she said.

Desperate women, unsafe abortions

Activists say desperate women turn to unsafe abortions. Africa and Latin America have the highest proportions of them, with approximately 75% of all abortions in Africa deemed unsafe, according to the World Health Organization.

The Guttmacher Institute health rights organization estimated in a 2019 report that over 6 million unsafe abortions a year occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. It noted that Zambia's abortion law "tended to be a 'paper law' rather than one that ensures widespread access."

In South Africa, which claims to have the most progressive laws on the continent, abortion has been legal for nearly 30 years. It is allowed on request before 13 weeks of pregnancy and for several reasons before 21 weeks.

But studies estimate only 7% of public health facilities there offer abortion services.

In 2023, the case of a 14-year-old who was denied an abortion by South African health workers three times for reasons that were not valid prompted a national reality check. After an urgent court case, a judge ordered that the girl be allowed to have an abortion, which was performed on the last day eligible by law.

At the time, a representative of the social justice group that represented the girl said South Africa's abortion laws were being undermined by "the abuse of medical knowledge by health care professionals" in trying to prevent abortions.

In Zambia, Zulu said she still felt bad about what she did but must now provide for her sons. She was looking for work again, she said.

Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

For more on Africa and development:https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP'sstandardsfor working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas atAP.org.

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February 15, 2026

She was denied a legal abortion and sent to prison over an illegal one. Now she tells her story

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — She says she was let down at every step. By a partner who abandoned her when she was pregnant. By ...

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Japan's economy limps back to scant growth in Q4, raises test for Takaichi

By Makiko Yamazaki and Chang-Ran Kim

TOKYO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Japan's economy limped back to meagre growth in the fourth quarter, significantly missing market expectations in a key test for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government as cost-of-living pressures ‌drag on confidence and domestic demand.

Fresh off a sweeping election victory, Takaichi's administration is preparing to ramp up investment through ‌targeted public spending in sectors seen as vital to economic security.

Monday's data bring sharp focus to the challenge at hand for policymakers at a time when the ​Bank of Japan has reiterated its pledge to keep raising interest rates and normalise monetary settings from years of ultra-low borrowing costs.

"It shows that the economy's recovery momentum is not very strong," Meiji Yasuda Research Institute economist Kazutaka Maeda said. "Consumption, capital expenditure and exports - areas we hoped would drive the economy - just haven't been as strong as we expected."

Gross domestic product in the world's fourth-largest economy increased an annualised 0.2% ‌in the October-December quarter, government data showed, well ⁠short of a median market estimate of a 1.6% gain in a Reuters poll. It barely scraped back to growth from a larger revised 2.6% contraction in the previous quarter.

The reading translates into a quarterly ⁠rise of 0.1%, also weaker than the median estimate of a 0.4% uptick.

Economists project Japan will continue to expand at a gradual pace in coming months, though the fourth quarter's weak outcome suggests the economy might struggle to fire on all cylinders.

"Whether the economy can achieve sustainable growth ​really depends ​on whether real wages can firmly return to positive growth," Shinichiro Kobayashi, ​principal economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting, said. "In ‌that sense, the key will be the outcome of this year's wage negotiations in the coming months."

A survey this month by the Japan Center for Economic Research showed 38 economists forecast an average annualised growth of 1.04% in the first quarter and 1.12% in the second quarter this year.

Kobayashi said the GDP report is unlikely to affect the Bank of Japan's monetary policy decisions. "Rather than this rate hike causing the economy to stall, the BOJ's focus is likely to be on how to contain inflation," he said.

Private consumption, which ‌accounts for more than half of economic output, rose 0.1% in October-December, matching ​market estimates.

It cooled from the 0.4% rise in the previous quarter, indicating that ​persistently high food costs remain a drag on household spending.

Capital ​spending, a key driver of private demand-led growth, also rose at a slow pace of 0.2% in ‌the fourth quarter, versus a rise of 0.8% in ​the Reuters poll.

Net external demand, or ​exports minus imports, contributed nothing to growth, versus a 0.3 point drag in the July-September period.

Exports posted a milder drop after the United States formalised a baseline 15% tariff on nearly all Japanese imports, down from 27.5% on autos and initially ​threatened 25% on most other goods.

"The impact ‌of tariffs appears to have peaked in July-September, but judging from the latest results, there is at least some ​possibility that firms will continue to take a somewhat cautious stance going forward," Meiji Yasuda's Maeda said.

(Reporting by Makiko ​Yamazaki and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Sam Holmes and Shri Navaratnam)

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Japan's economy limps back to scant growth in Q4, raises test for Takaichi

By Makiko Yamazaki and Chang-Ran Kim TOKYO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Japan's economy limped back to meagre growt...

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Glen Powell Recalls the Meanest Prank He Ever Played on His Sister Leslie — and It Involved Joe Jonas (Exclusive)

Kevin Winter/Getty;Kevin Winter/Getty

NEED TO KNOW

• Glen Powell revealed the meanest prank he ever played on his younger sister, Leslie Powell

• The prank involved Glen's former Devotion costar Joe Jonas

• Glen shared the story while chatting with PEOPLE at a screening of his new film How to Make a Killing, on Feb. 14

Glen Powellrevealed the meanest prank he's ever played on his sister — and it involved former costarJoe Jonas.

Glen caught up with PEOPLE exclusively at a special screening of his new dark comedy,How to Make a Killing, in Los Angeles on Saturday, Feb. 14. The movie features a hefty dose of family-related scheming, which led PEOPLE to ask the actor about the most mischievous thing he's ever done to his parents or siblings.

"I did … a prank phone call on mysister [Leslie]with Joe Jonas of getting arrested, and my sister literally was searching in every jail in Georgia for the two of us," Glen, 37, revealed.

Glen and Jonas, 36, appeared together in the 2022 war film,Devotion, which also starredJonathan Majors.

"Joe figured out a way to get — I think it was on like Google Translate — for it to sound like a jail was calling my sister for a collect call, and so … my sister accepted the call, and I basically just pretended like Joe and I hit somebody in a golf cart and that we needed to be bailed out," he continued.

"And my sister took it very seriously. And then I ended the call, and then my sister searched every jail in Georgia looking for Joe Jonas and me," Glen added. "It was very sweet of her. It showed the dedication that my sister has to me, but I'm not going to do a mean prank on her like that again because she's too sweet."

As to whether Leslie ever got him back?

"She did get me back. She was salivating to return that favor, I remember," he shared.

Leslie, 33, a musician and the youngest Powell sibling, is accomplished in the entertainment industry in her own right. Her work has appeared in various TV shows, movies and commercials. She's even worked on the score for several projects that starred her brother, includingTwistersandAnyone But You.

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And while Glen may enjoy a good sibling prank, he often sings his younger sister's praises, calling her "no doubt my favorite artist of all" in a past interview withNylon.

"Nothing puts me in a better mood than [Leslie's] music," he said. "Remember the name. She's a star," he added.

The pair also have an older sister, Lauren Powell, 39, who lives near Glen in Texas and is mom to his four nieces and nephews.

Eric Charbonneau/Getty

In a 2023 profile withTexas Highways,the actor revealed that these day the Powell family often congregates at their "family ranch in East Texas."

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"Kicking it with the family and gathering everybody, that's magical," he said.

How to Make a Killingis in theaters Feb. 20.

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February 15, 2026

Glen Powell Recalls the Meanest Prank He Ever Played on His Sister Leslie — and It Involved Joe Jonas (Exclusive)

Kevin Winter/Getty;Kevin Winter/Getty NEED TO KNOW Glen Powell revealed the meanest prank he ever played on his younger sister, Leslie P...

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