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Tag Archives: Charms
Investigation into Lucky Charms after more than 100 consumers claim the cereal made them sick
An FDA spokesperson confirmed the complaints related to Lucky Charms this year.
The cereal marketed as “magically delicious” is under investigation by the Food and Drug Administration after more than 100 customers claimed the cereal made them sick.
On Saturday, as first reported by The Associated Press, the agency said it had received over 100 complaints related to Lucky Charms so far this year.
The FDA confirmed the investigation to ABC News, and said it’s “aware of consumer complaints regarding illnesses associated with Lucky Charms cereal.”
“The FDA takes seriously any reports of possible adulteration of a food that may also cause illnesses or injury. Complaints of a less serious nature or those that appear to be isolated incidents are monitored and the information may be used during a future inspection of a company to help the FDA identify problem areas in a production plant,” an FDA official told ABC News. “The complaints are also discussed with company management during these inspections.”
Questions about a possible link between the cases of reported illness and the cereal after hundreds of consumers posted on a food safety website called, iwaspoisoned, with complaints of nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. According to the platform, over 3,000 posted complaints as of Monday.
General Mills Inc., the Minneapolis-based company that makes Lucky Charms and other cereals, said its own investigation has not found any evidence of consumer illness linked to Lucky Charms.
“We encourage consumers to please share any concerns directly with General Mills,” a spokeswoman said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A hundred complaints were initially found on the FDA’s reporting site, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Adverse Event Reporting System (CFSAN). The database contains information on adverse event and product complaint reports submitted by consumers and others to FDA for foods, dietary supplements, and cosmetics. As of time of publication the program had received over 100 reports related to Lucky Charms in 2022, all being reviewed and investigated.
ABC News has reached out to General Mills, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the company told the WSJ on Sunday that it’s working with the FDA.
Thousands report vomiting, diarrhea after eating Lucky Charms cereal
Enlarge / A bowl of General Mills Lucky Charms cereal.
The end of the rainbow may not have a pot of gold—but a pot of something entirely different.
Thousands of people have reported stomach pains, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea after eating Lucky Charms, the “magically delicious” sugar-coated cereal fronted by a cartoon leprechaun that feebly tries to prevent hungry children from getting his colorful charm-shaped marshmallows. The illnesses have left many wondering if the latest lineup of charms includes hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers, and tasty infectious bacteria.
The website iwaspoisoned.com, which collects consumer reports of food-borne illnesses, has received more than 3,000 complaints about the cereal from all over the US, most of which are from the past few weeks. Lucky Charms has now received more illness reports than any other individual product in the site’s 10-year history, according to Patrick Quade, founder of the site, who spoke with The Wall Street Journal.
In statements to the press, the Food and Drug Administration said it has received more than 100 reports of illnesses through its own reporting system and has opened an investigation. “The FDA takes seriously any reports of possible adulteration of a food that may also cause illnesses or injury,” the regulator said.
General Mills, which makes Lucky Charms, told reporters that it has heard the reports but has not found any evidence that its cereal is causing illnesses. “Food safety is our top priority,” a spokesperson told The New York Times. “We encourage consumers to please share any concerns directly with General Mills to ensure they can be appropriately addressed.”
Meanwhile, the official Lucky Charms Twitter account has been swamped with tummy troubles. The account’s replies are a long string of messages starting with “We are very sorry to hear about your experience.”
The account echoed that of General Mills’ comments, tweeting: “Food safety is our top priority. We’re aware of concerns via a third-party website and take these reports seriously. We’ve investigated and found no evidence these complaints are attributed to our products.”
This isn’t the first time children’s cereal has had people of all ages rushing to the bathroom—or, in some cases, the hospital. In 2018, Kellogg’s Honey Smacks sweetened puffed-wheat cereal sickened 135 people in 36 states, sending 34 to the hospital. An FDA investigation determined that a Wisconsin factory producing the cereal was rife with Salmonella, which was detected in more than 100 samples taken from the production lines, cereal-coating rooms, and other areas of the plant. The FDA noted that Salmonella can cause fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain in healthy people while causing more severe illness in children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems.
Also in 2018, PepsiCo recalled a small batch of Cap’n Crunch’s Peanut Butter Crunch for potential Salmonella contamination, though there were no reports of linked illnesses.
FDA investigating Lucky Charms amid reports of illness
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it is investigating Lucky Charms over dozens complaints it has received from customers who say they became ill after eating the cereal.
In a statement provided to The Associated Press, the FDA said it “takes seriously any reports of possible adulteration of a food that may also cause illnesses or injury.”
General Mills told the AP that it has so far found no links between Lucky Charms and illness among customers. The Minneapolis-based company said it encouraged customers to contact them directly over concerns.
Hundreds of people have complained of nausea, diarrhea and vomiting after eating the cereal on the iwaspoisoned.com food safety website.
Reports have been made from across the country, with consumers from Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina Tennessee and Texas complaining of illness.
Patrick Quade, founder of the website, told The Wall Street Journal that the 3,000 reports it has received about Lucky Charms this year was the most ever for a single product in its decade online. He added most of the reports were made in the past two weeks.
According to the complaints, symptoms began from 30 minutes to a few hours after eating Lucky Charms. One individual said they tested their son for COVID-19 after he began experiencing symptoms, before they noticed that he seemed to get ill after eating the cereal.
Last week, the FDA told USA Today that it was aware of the reports of illness and was looking into them. The newspaper noted that direct complaints to the FDA regarding Lucky Charms have generally been rare, with only 41 since 2004 and three since last year.
One of the complaints received by the FDA since 2021 was related to the complaints made on iwaspoisoned.com.
FDA probes Lucky Charms’ possible link to illnesses
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Food and Drug Administration officials said they are examining reports from more than 100 consumers who told the agency that they got sick after eating Lucky Charms cereal recently.
The reports come after thousands of people have complained on a consumer website, saying they have experienced nausea, vomiting and diarrhea after eating Lucky Charms.
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“The agency is currently reviewing and investigating these reports,” an FDA spokeswoman said.
General Mills Inc., which makes the cereal, said it is working with the FDA on the matter. The company said it conducted a thorough internal investigation that found no evidence of illnesses linked to the consumption of Lucky Charms. “We encourage consumers to please share any concerns directly with General Mills,” a spokeswoman said.
FILE – Boxes of General Mills’ Lucky Charms cereal are seen on a shelf at a Costco Warehouse in Robinson Township, Pa., Thursday, May 14, 2020. On Saturday, April 16, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that it is investigating Lucky Cha ( (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) / AP Newsroom)
General Mills and the FDA haven’t issued a recall of the cereal, which is one of the company’s top brands.
“The FDA takes seriously any reports of possible adulteration of a food that may also cause illnesses or injury,” the FDA spokeswoman said.
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It’s rare for people to get sick from eating breakfast cereal because cereal is baked, which typically kills pathogens, food-safety experts have said. Cereal can be contaminated after it is baked, when the puffs are glazed with a sugary coating, for example, or when it is packaged.
Patrick Quade, founder of the consumer website iwaspoisoned.com, said that so far this year his site has received nearly 2,500 reports from people around the country who said they got sick soon after eating Lucky Charms. The vast majority of the reports have come in over the past two weeks, and they amount to the most complaints the decade-old website has ever received for a single product, he said.
General Mills is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer foods sold through retail stores. REUTERS/Jim Young
Consumer reports of Lucky Charms-linked illnesses to the FDA jumped over the past week following news articles by the New York Post and USA Today about the complaints to Mr. Quade’s website.
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Some consumers who reported their illnesses to Mr. Quade’s website and the FDA told Mr. Quade that the FDA has contacted them about testing of their cereal, he said. The FDA declined to comment.
FDA headquarters in Washington DC. (iStock / iStock)
Kristin Johnson, who lives in Lexington, Ky., said she fed Lucky Charms to her two-year-old daughter about a week ago, and her daughter got sick for a few days. “When she started feeling better, I gave her Lucky Charms because I thought that was something she would eat since it’s her favorite treat. And she got sick again,” Ms. Johnson said.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GIS | GENERAL MILLS INC. | 70.91 | +0.23 | +0.33% |
General Mills declined further comment.
In recent years, consumer advocacy groups have called the FDA slow in reacting to foodborne illness outbreaks. The FDA last month received complaints from Consumer Reports, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and other organizations about its handling of a recall of contaminated infant formula earlier this year after two babies died.
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The FDA has said it can’t comment on the timeline of the infant formula recall but that it will conduct a review once the outbreak investigation is over. In December, the agency said it had expanded its rapid response team to help solve outbreaks faster.
In 2018, a salmonella outbreak traced to Kellogg Co. ’s Honey Smacks cereal sickened at least 135 people in 36 states. An investigation by food regulators found that the factory Kellogg had contracted to make Honey Smacks had unsanitary conditions. Regulators said the owners of that factory, Wisconsin-based Kerry Inc., had found salmonella on production lines and in a cereal-coating room. At the time, Kellogg said it stopped contracting with that factory to make its cereal, and Kerry said it improved equipment sanitation and enhanced training.
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Cereal can also get contaminated by packaging. In 2010, Kellogg recalled 28 million boxes of Froot Loops and other brands after consumers complained of the taste and smell, and some people said they got sick after eating it. Kellogg said it found that the problem was elevated levels of a food packaging substance in the cereal box lining.
Write to Annie Gasparro at annie.gasparro@wsj.com
The FDA Is Investigating Reports Of Sickness Linked To Lucky Charms Cereal
The Lucky Charms cases appear to be credible enough for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to say it was “aware of reports and is looking into the matter.”
The FDA also told Food Safety News: “The FDA takes seriously any reports of possible adulteration of a food that may also cause illnesses or injury. Depending on the seriousness of the problem, an FDA investigator may visit the person who made the complaint, collect product samples, and initiate inspections.” This said, the agency also made it clear that it has thus far not received any calls or complaints.
Consumer Reports has also reached out to General Mills about Lucky Charms. The company says it has found nothing to indicate that the incidents were related to their products, adding, “We encourage consumers to please share any concerns directly with General Mills to ensure they can be appropriately addressed.” The group’s director of food safety and testing, James E. Rogers, Ph.D., now recommends that consumers pick other cereals until more information emerges.
Since IWasPoisoned.com has actually accurately predicted food poisoning outbreaks before, it might be wise to follow that advice.
Is Lucky Charms cereal making people sick? FDA is investigating
More than 1,300 people have complained to a website that tracks foodborne illnesses that the popular Lucky Charms cereal with the candy-like marshmallows has made them sick.
The high number of reports prompted the FDA to launch an investigation, according to the website: Iwaspoisoned.com.
Earlier this month, when more than 600 reports had come in, the founder of the website Patrick Quade said it was an unprecedented level of complaints for a single consumer product, according to Consumer Reports. As media coverage has grown, so have the number of reports to the website.
Reports continue to flow into the site daily, with customers reporting similar symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, gas and cramps soon after eating their favorite bowl of cereal. Some people noted the symptoms stopped in subsequent days if they stopped eating the cereal and others noted they had gotten sick while eating Lucky Charms while other members of their households did not get sick when eating other General Mills cereals.
The reports have not been independently confirmed. But the website has a history of correctly identifying problems in the food supply before health officials, including outbreaks: at a Chipotle Mexican Grill in Simi Valley, Calif., in 2015; an Applebee’s in Michigan in 2016; a Melting Pot in Tacoma, Wash., in 2017; and a Jimmy John’s in Wisconsin in 2017.
The website has a note on its homepage about the cereal issue, noting the trend began in late 2021.
“We recommend anyone who fell ill after eating Lucky Charms, to report it, and to keep left over product for testing,” the website said. “We will communicate procedures for testing to everyone who reports their case.”
An FDA officials told Consumer Reports it could initiate inspections of potentially affected facilities, collect product samples, and contact people who’ve been sickened. But the agency declined to confirm whether any of those specific actions had yet been taken.
The FDA has its own reporting system, which had received just three reports related to Lucky Charms and only one that was similar to the kind of reports that the third-party website was getting, according to Food and Wine magazine.
“Food safety is our top priority. We take the consumer concerns reported via a third-party website very seriously,” Andrea Williamson, a General Mills spokesperson told Food & Wine. “After a thorough internal investigation, we have not found any evidence that these complaints are attributed to our products. We encourage consumers to please share any concerns directly with General Mills to ensure they can be appropriately addressed.”
The iwaspoisoned.com website says its mission is to help protect the public from foodborne illnesses that sicken 1 in 6 Americans each year.
“Large outbreaks can be deadly and each year these illnesses result in an estimated 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths,” the website said. “Your report makes a difference.”
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