When the salmonella scare struck a wide swath of peanut-based products last month, Justin Gold knew he needed to act fast to soothe customers' jitters.

Gold, founder of Boulder-based Justin's Nut Butter, quickly put out a release explaining how his products are organically-based. He assured distributors and grocery stores that his company's products were safe. He checked to make sure none of his peanut supply came from the Georgia plant suspected of being the source of the illness. None did.

Now almost three weeks later, Justin's Nut Butter appears to not only be weathering the storm, but thriving in spite of it.

Prior to the outbreak, Gold said they were courting investors and had secured about $250,000.

Since the outbreak was reported in mid-January, he's raised upwards of $800,000 from investors.

Gold said the publicity from the salmonella outbreak has made people look for alternatives.

"There is a fallout with consumer trust in the conventional peanut butter products and I think more are buying organic products because of that," Gold said Monday. "The situation has opened a lot of doors for distribution and it has put the national spotlight on peanut butter and all companies that deal with peanut butter."

More than 500 people have become ill while at least eight may have died with authorities faulting Peanut Corp. of America.

Officials said the company shipped products that initially tested positive for salmonella after retesting and getting a negative result.

The outbreak has led to a massive recall of products ranging from ice cream to cookies and prompted consumer groups to urge Congress to require annual inspections of food processing plants.

Established in 2002, Gold's company started as a boutique peanut butter company. Since then, Gold said he's grown beyond boutique-sized — though he's not in the same league as companies like Kellogg that provide a wide array of products to large grocery stores and discount chains.

Justin's is typically found in Whole Foods, Starbucks and Vitamin Cottage. The company started off selling 16-ounce jars of peanut butter, but it's been the squeeze packs that have generated a spike in sales.

But one thing that hasn't changed is the inspection process.

Justin's gets it materials from Fresca Foods in Louisville.

Alex Cioth, executive vice president of the privately held company, said Frescal Foods doesn't reveal where their peanuts come from but he did say they have never used Peanut Corp. of America.

Cioth also said their facility gets random quality assurance testing from a third party and has never failed a test. However, he said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn't do tests at his plant.

Michael Herndon, spokesman for the FDA, confirmed that, saying the FDA doesn't do random inspections except for plants that produce high risk products such as unpasteurized juices and eggs.

- The Associated Press contributed to this report.