I was having a peanut butter crisis today. Someone was eating my peanut butter that I keep in the office fridge (clearly labeled with MY name and there’s nobody else here with MY name so it’s not like they could’ve gotten confused). So I thought maybe I should keep my peanut butter at my desk, under lock and key. Most of the standard cheap peanut butter doesn’t require refrigeration, what with all that artificial stuff they add to it. The organic stuff I like to buy DOES say “refrigerate after opening” on the label, however, which is why mine was in the fridge to begin with. So I was wondering exactly how long I could safely keep it at my desk without worrying about it developing some of that nasty stuff (aspergillus) that supposedly grows on peanuts and also supposedly produces carcinogenic toxins.
So, can anyone tell me if I’m at risk of consuming aflatoxin if I keep my peanut butter stored at my desk? Or should I just give up and order my bubble now?
I only use the preservative-rich ultra-processed type foods, myself, so I can’t tell you about the non-fridge shelf-life of organic peanut butter.
I can tell you, however, that aflatoxin is from a mold that grows on peanuts (and other things) when the crop is exposed to very wet conditions, or the peanuts are improperly stored in high humidity. Once they’re de-shelled and mashed to death, there’s not that much chance of the aspergillus molds getting a hold. And if the peanuts were moldy and toxic to start with, well, then leaving the stuff out on a shelf instead of the fridge won’t make a difference, since the toxin’s already in there. All that to say that I’m pretty sure you won’t have problems with aflatoxin if you leave your peanut butter in your desk.
But that’s not to say that bacteria and molds won’t set up camp in the peanut butter jar.
Simply put a sign on the fridge stating that as a precaution against the peanut butter thief you’ve spit a LOT into your peanut butter, and have done so for months. Since it’s going right back in your mouth, which is full of your spit anyhow, that’s not a big deal for you. For them however …
Odds are they’ll move on to somebody else’s lunch.
If that doesn’t work, buy 2 jars, mark one in a hidden fashion, and lace the other heavily with laxative. Eat from the safe one and enjoy the show.
I’ve fired people for stealing from the communal fridge. Theft is theft & that particular crime is so destructive to morale. If you’re gonna be a crook, at least make it for something worthwhile.
Bah. I never refrigerate my natural peanut butter. I have a jar of Smuckers in my desk drawer that’s been there about a year and a half, and it’s fine.
Refrigeration prevents the oil from separating out, but you can just stir it back in if it happens.
My natural peanut butter says “Refrigerate after opening to prevent separation” (bolding mine). I don’t mind stirring it, but I do mind cold, hardened, dry peanut butter, so I leave it on the pantry shelf, and it’s fine.
There must be a difference between natural and organic PB. I buy organic, and at room temperature the oil comes to the top. You must keep it in the fridge. Even stirring doesn’t mix the oil back in.
Once I poured the oil off and what was left was an unuseable mud the consistencey of wall spackle.
What are the ingredients? All the natural peanut butter I’ve ever gotten has two ingredients: peanuts and salt. Does your organic brand have another oil added, or something?
Natural, organic peanut butter will separate, just like natural not organic peanut butter will separate. It will even separate a bit in the fridge, just not as much. But it will stir back in. You have to stir and stir and stir, but it will rehomogenize briefly, and then reseparate when it sits.
Natural peanut oil is unsaturated, meaning there are carbons on the fatty acid chains that are double bonded to one another. This puts a kink in the long chains and means that the fatty acids can’t pack together as tightly. The upshot is that it remains liquid at room temperature. Any fat that’s a liquid at room temp is unsaturated - oils, etc. To get around this problem, most mainstream peanut butter manufacturers hydrogenate their oil, which means they use a process that breaks the double bonds and adds hydrogen atoms to those carbons. This straightens out the chains, allows them to pack much more tightly, and makes the oil a soild at room temperature. Saturated fats are solids - shortening, butter, etc.
The double bonds in the unsaturated peanut oil are fairly reactive, chemically, so it has a tendency to pick up nasty flavors or to go bad a little faster than hydrogenated oil when left sitting out. Cancer has nothing to do with it.
If your organic peanut butter has aflatoxin, it already has it - at least from what I’ve read, the problem is when the peanuts are stored prior to butterification. And yes, your organic peanut butter may well give you the cancer; organic peanut butter has several times more aflatoxin than the normal stuff, and aflatoxin is one of the most carcinogenic substances known. You’re taking a major risk with your health in eating organic peanut butter; leaving it out in the pantry is probably a pretty minor concern in comparison. That’s like asking if you should keep your cigarettes in the fridge to make sure they’re fresh.
Okay, so we’ve established that if there was gonna be any cancer-causing toxins in the peanut butter it’s already there, but is the organic stuff necessarily worse than the conventional stuff? (Especially considering all the additives the conventional stuff has). Are we just assuming that the conventional peanut butter is better regulated than the organic stuff, and so is less likely to contain the toxin?
The peanut butter I just bought was a generic store-brand “natural” peanut butter - not from a whole foods store or anything. But is there any way to tell where the peanuts are really coming from?
I’d never even heard of aflatoxin until I was looking up proper storage methods for the peanut butter. Now I’m really worried. I eat the stuff every day.
I don’t have a cite, but I would think it has more to do with the way the peanuts are grown. If the organic ones aren’t treated with chemicals to prevent mold growth, then there’s more of a chance that those peanuts will manage to acquire alfatoxin-producing molds (which are, by the way, only a teeny number out of all the possible molds you can get on a peanut).
Yes. At least according to some research. The organic kind has many times more aflatoxin. People buy it because they assume that organic equals healthy, when that simply is not the case. You can worry about the potential effects of pesticides - it’s a relevant concern, to be sure, and I wouldn’t claim otherwise - but the effects of aflatoxin are very real.