“Do not eat this cereal.”
That’s the frank message the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had for lovers of the breakfast staple Honey Smacks on Thursday after 100 people were infected with salmonella and 30 of them hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.
The Food and Drug Administration said about 1.3 million cases of the popular Kellogg’s cereal, described as a sweetened puffed wheat product, had been recalled from more than 30 states last month, Reuters reported. But the cereal is still being sold in some stores.
The CDC has urged consumers not to eat Honey Smacks “in any size packaging” and to throw opened or unopened boxes in the trash even if some of the cereal had been eaten without people falling ill. Products with a “best if used by” date between June 14, 2018 and June 14, 2019 in several sizes have been recalled, but the FDA has recommended consumers avoid any box of the cereal.
“Retailers cannot legally offer the cereal for sale and consumers should not purchase Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal,” the agency said in a statement. “The public is urged to report any product being offered for sale.”
People infected with salmonella bacteria can show symptoms after just 12 hours, including diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. Those symptoms can last between four and seven days, and such illnesses send about 23,000 people to the hospital every year, according to the CDC.
Most people recover without treatment, however.