Here is what General Mills says about the recall:
Good Afternoon,
Please allow me to share an announcement we’ve just had to make.
As you know, we’ve said we would address any issue if we ever found we were making cereal that wasn’t meeting the gluten free standard.
Today we’ve done exactly that. In the past 24 hours we confirmed that such an incident did occur, and we have announced today a voluntary recall of Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios produced on several dates at our Lodi, California facility.
We sincerely apologize to the gluten-free community and to anyone who might have been impacted. The attached letter is from Jim Murphy, President of General Mills Cereal. He’s also posted a blog post. We encourage you to share this news with your network. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me, or email our media line at media.line@genmills.com or call the media line at 763-764-6364. Thank you!
Mike Siemienas, Manager, Brand Media Relations
Celiac.org
General Mills announces recall of certain boxes of Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios
As president of General Mills’ cereal business, I am embarrassed and truly sorry to announce today that we are recalling boxes of Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios produced on several dates at our Lodi, California facility. The recalled code dates are detailed in our press release issued minutes ago.
This recall is necessary because an undeclared allergen – wheat – with potential adverse health effects may be present in the cereals we produced on several dates in Lodi, in July.
Our Lodi production facility lost rail service for a time and our gluten-free oat flour was being off-loaded from rail cars to trucks for delivery to our facility on the dates in question. In an isolated incident involving purely human error, wheat flour was inadvertently introduced into our gluten-free oat flour system at Lodi. That error resulted in an undeclared allergen – wheat – being present in products labeled as gluten free at levels above the FDA gluten-free standard.
This mistake occurred at just one plant, in Lodi, and the Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios produced at our other plants were not affected.
We have long said we would address any issue if we ever found we were making cereal that wasn’t meeting the gluten free standard – and today that became necessary.
We sincerely apologize to the gluten-free community and to anyone who may have been impacted. We care deeply about making safe, nutritious, gluten free products more widely available, and we’ve worked very hard to ensure our products are gluten free. Today we must acknowledge that we failed to meet that commitment for a time, and we’re recalling all affected products as a result.
Please know that our oat supply was not the issue. We tested our oat supply on these dates – and the oat supply tested as gluten free. We also tested the specific oat flour being used at Lodi – and our oat flour supply also tested as gluten free on the dates in question.
We are testing all finished products. We’ve also instituted additional flour handling protocols at all facilities to ensure this will not happen again.
Please know we’ll be working even harder to earn back your trust.
Jim Murphy
President of General Mills Cereal
I received this in an email this afternoon from Mike. Check your boxes to make sure they are not listed in the Better by dates listed above. When I hear more I will pass on the information.
I am really hoping this was the problrm with my bov of honey nut cheerios. I gave aweay the unused portion, so I cant check the box. I will be nervous to try it, but I really want to be able t eat Cheerios again!
I have celaic disease and was so excited to go and purchase the new gluten free Honey Nut Cheerios. I was sick and not sure why I was sick since I was only eating gluten free foods. There is no treatment for celaic disease except no being exposed to gluten. I was such so I was taking stomach and digestion meds and getting no relief. It was not until I saw the recall and stopped eating Cheerios that I finally no longer was sick.
This issue is not just a simple one of “General Mills saying their sorry Tina Celaic.” I was poisoned. Gluten not jenny makes a celaic sick but creates an auto immune issue when the body starts to turn on itself.
What wound the FDA, the public and General Mills be doing if rat poison was found in their cereal? I think that General Mills has a responsibility to provide additional testing, compensation, and care for those that are Celaic’s.
Another comment. If they know what specific “batches” of boxes were contaminated General Mills should know where these specific boxes were sent. I purchased my box of Cheerios from HEB in San Antonio on 9/28/15, I no longer have the upc or box, just the Box Top, to confirm that I got a contaminated box. I know I got sick so either the box I had was one of the ones identified or the recall should be larger. I think it should be Cheerios to notify the stores and locations that received the contaminated boxes. I got sick only from the Cheerios. I have been fine ever since re removing Cheerios from my diet.
I also have a box I purchased on 10/3/2015 from Walgreens in San Antonio. I still have this box but it does not appear to be the contaminated ones. I will keep this box should I need to have it tested. I think the recall is larger then General Mills has disclosed.
Thank you.