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#Lucky Charms should be recalled after complaints of illness, experts say

“Lucky Charms should be recalled after complaints of illness, experts say”

Reports of sickness linked to Lucky Charms continue to widen as a federal investigation ramps up — and some food experts say manufacturer General Mills should consider a voluntary recall of the sugary breakfast cereal.

As of Thursday, the number of Lucky Charms complaints submitted to the FDA had climbed to 529 — more than double the 231 cases reported as of April 20. Meanwhile iwaspoisoned.com, a site that tracks food-borne illnesses, has tallied some 7,300 complaints as of May 5, up from 3,500 on April 20.

Lee-Ann Jaykus, a professor of food, bioprocessing, and nutrition sciences at North Carolina State University who has been studying the case, believes the outbreak may be linked to pandemic-related supply chain issues.

One possible culprit, according to Jaykus: an alternative additive such as the food dye used to make the colorful, charm-shaped marshmallows in the cereal — which might help explain why some people have reported having green-colored poop, she said.

A grocery aisle with Lucky Charms cereal.
Some food experts are calling on Lucky Charms manufacturer, General Mills, to voluntarily recall the cereal.
Getty Images

“My first guess is that it was an ingredient change, because many food companies experienced not being able to get an ingredient and having to source it from a new provider over the past couple of years,” Jaykus said.

Jaykus believes it is a chemical ingredient in the cereal, in part, because so many people reported becoming ill very quickly — a couple of hours in some cases. The onset of Salmonella, for example, can take six hours to several days. 

Bill Marler, an attorney and prominent expert on food-borne illnesses, agreed.

A bowl of Lucky Charms cereal.
General Mills has said it does not believe the cereal is making people sick.
Boston Globe via Getty Images

“If it is the cereal that is making these, now 7,000, people ill, it seems more probable that it is a chemical or allergen as opposed to a bacteria or virus given the reported complaints and the length of reported illnesses,” Marler told the Post.

The FDA has not provided an update on its investigation and declined to comment. The agency has begun testing boxes of the cereal from consumers who reported an illness and it is investigating General Mills’ manufacturing facilities, according to its website. To date, no known pathogen has been identified.

“I cannot think of one incident or outbreak where there were hundreds or thousands of people sickened and you couldn’t figure out the cause,” Marler said.

With the lack of hard information, experts increasingly are recommending that General Mills initiate a recall.

“Although, there has been no scientific proven link, be it chemical or an allergen, between the several thousand illnesses and Lucky Charms,” Marler said, “my advice to General Mills is to recall the product and reset its trust with the consuming public until more is known.” 

“From a public health perspective the prudent thing to do would be to pull the product off the market,” Jaykus said.

A close-up of the Lucky Charms bowl of cereal.
Some experts believe the culprit could be a chemical ingredient.
Getty Images

Jaykus added that General Mills is “potentially looking at taking off a year’s worth” of cereal from the market, which has “enormous financial implications,” and is likely a reason the company has not issued a recall. 

“I can guarantee you that the lawyers on both sides [at General Mills and at the FDA] are getting involved in this,” Jaykus said, adding that the FDA has likely pressured General Mills to issue a recall.

The 58-year-old brand hasn’t previously been linked to a food-borne illness. Since April 1, when The Post first reported on the outbreak of vomiting, diarrhea among consumers nationwide, General Mills has insisted that it does not believe Lucky Charms are causing people to be sick.

In response, the company has bewildered some customers by handing out coupons for free cereal in response to their complaints to the company.

“We continue to cooperate with the FDA in investigating this matter. We have not found any evidence of consumer illness tied to our products,” General Mills spokesperson Andrea Williamson said in a statement.

Dry cereal is typically not a culprit in food borne illness outbreaks, but in 2018 Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal caused a multi-state outbreak of salmonella in which 135 people in 36 states were infected and 34 people were hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Patrick Quade, founder of iwaspoisoned.com, says many of the Lucky Charms boxes that allegedly made consumers sick had an expiration date of January, February and March 2023. More than 400 consumers who submitted a complaint to the website included a photo of the box’s expiration date, Quade said.

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