Checking items off your grocery shopping list is becoming a lot more difficult. As supply chain issues continue, ongoing product recalls are making grocery store shelves look even barer. In the past month alone, several recalls have been issued affecting popular products and staple food items, including everything from fruit snacks to frozen foods and even an essential personal hygiene product.
The recent product recalls hit some of the biggest items on grocery lists, with one recall impacting more than 6,000 pounds of fish products. In a recall notice on Feb. 18, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that 6,570 pounds of Corfu Foods, Inc.’s swai (Siluriformes) fish products were being pulled from store shelves because the imported products were not presented for import reinspection into the United States. The recall, however, has a limited scope, with the products only having been shipped to institutions, restaurants, and retail locations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The recall followed a recall affecting more than 4,000 pounds of Great American Cobbler LLC’s chicken pot pie products. Those products were recalled due to misbranding and undeclared allergens.
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Even snack items haven’t been safe from the recalls. On Feb. 10, the FDA posted a recall notice for American Gourmet’s snack-sized bags of dried fruit snacks. The recall, impacting .99c Saladitos, dried salted plums, in 1.5 oz packages, was issued after it was discovered that dried plums or saladitos containing lead were distributed in these packages, which did not warn of potential lead exposure. Meanwhile, down the ice cream aisle, customers won’t be able to grab The Royal Chip Ice Cream Company, Inc.’s ice cream. The company expanded its recall this month to include all products manufactured at its Manchester facility. The recall spans nine states and 14 brands, including Maple Valley Ice Cream, Sweet Scoops Yogurt, and Gelato Fiasco, among several others.
Product recalls have also impacted the personal hygiene aisle, where Brut and Sure deodorant brands were recently pulled from store shelves. A recall notice earlier this month explained that four Brut products, all of which were packaged in aerosol cans, were recalled due to the possible presence of benzene, a flammable chemical. The FDA noted that “benzene is classified as a human carcinogen.” Retailers were promptly notified about the recall and distributors and retailers were asked to stop selling the products immediately.
In all of these recalls, distributors and retailers have been notified, with the products pulled from shelves. Consumers who have purchased the recalled products have been asked not to consume them and to either throw them out or return the products to the place of purchase.
