NEW YORK When you think about car safety, you think brakes, air bags and seat belts. Now, you should check floor mats, too. The carpet in your driver’s footwell is at the center of what will be Toyota’s largest-ever U.S. vehicle recall, prompted by a fatal crash. The problem: Gas pedals in some Toyotas could become caught under the edge of floor mats. That may have led to a car cash that killed four people in August outside San Diego.

NHTSA: (888) 327-4236
  Toyota: (800) 331-4331
  Lexus: (800) 255-3987

Inspection reports from a Nestle USA cookie-dough factory in Virginia released yesterday show the company refused several times in the past five years to provide Food and Drug Administration inspectors with complaint logs, pest-control records and other information. The records, which date to 2004, were made public after Nestle’s Toll House refrigerated, prepackaged cookie dough was discovered to be the likely culprit in an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 69 people in 29 states, according to the latest estimates from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC is investigating the outbreak along with the FDA.

In another food scare sure to rattle consumers who watched the national salmonella outbreak in peanuts unfold, federal food officials are now warning people not to eat any food containing pistachios, which could carry contamination from the same bacteria.

The Food and Drug Administration’s Web site lists products recalled because of salmonella-contaminated peanut butter produced at the Peanut Corporation of America’s Georgia plant. A partial list follows; the full list is online at http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm. Abbott Nutrition: Selected ZonePerfect and Nutriballs nutrition bars Amway Global: Selected Nutrilite energy bars Arbonne International: Arbonne Figure 8 Peanut Butter Chews Brent and Sam’s: Selected Archer Farms and Sam’s Choice peanut butter cookies Clif Bar & Co.: Selected Clif, Luna and Mojo branded nutrition bars General Mills: LARABAR Peanut Butter Cookie snack bars and JamFrakas Peanut Butter Blisscrisp snack bars GNC: Triflex Peanut Butter Soft Chews Keebler: Selected Austin Quality Foods and Keebler brand snack crackers; Famous Amos Peanut Butter Cookies; Keebler Soft Bath Homestyle Peanut Butter Cookies Kroger: Private Selection Peanut Butter Passion Ice Cream McKee Foods Corp.: Selected Little Debbie snack crackers Lovin Oven LLC: Health Valley Organic Peanut Crunch Chewy Granola Bars Meijer: Selected Meijer brand snack crackers and ice cream NutriSystem: Peanut butter granola bars Perry’s Ice Cream Co.: Selected ice cream products sold in Wegman’s and other grocery stores PetSmart: Selected Grreat Choice dog biscuits and Carolina Prime products Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products: Selected cookies it sells through Wal-Mart, Food Lion and other grocery stores Ready Pac Foods: Selected fruit and vegetable snack packs sold at Safeway and other grocery stores South Bend Chocolate Co.: Selected candies Trader Joe’s: Trader Joe’s Sliced Green Apples With All Natural Peanut Butter, Celery with Peanut Butter and selected granola bars; Sutter’s Formula Cookies

Food Lion LLC has joined a growing list of supermarket chains clearing shelves of products made with peanut butter that could be tainted by salmonella. The grocer, with 48 stores in Richmond area, posted a list Monday evening of seven products it pulled containing peanut butter and peanut-butter paste.

About 56,450 Jardine cribs have been recalled because the wooden crib slats can break, creating a gap, which can pose an entrapment and strangulation hazard to infants and toddlers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has received 19 additional incidents of crib slats breaking. In nine of these incidents, consumers reported that their infant or toddler broke the slat while in the crib. Also, a 22-month-old child fell through the gap between the crib slats when a slat broke.

Mom-and-pop makers of toys and other products for children fear that costly new government regulations could put them out of business soon after Christmas. After recalls of millions of tainted toys from China over the past two years, Congress approved a new law in August limiting the amount of lead and other chemicals in children’s products.

About 95,000 Majestic High Chairs made by Evenflo Co. Inc. have been recalled because the company says they pose a hazard for children when parts come loose and the seat backs fall off. There have been dozens of reported injuries such as broken bones and head bruises. The company received more than 1,000 reports of parts falling out and 140 reports of the seatbacks reclining or detaching.

About 900,000 Toro Power Sweep electric blowers have been recalled because the impeller can break, resulting in pieces of plastic flying out of the blower.