The Quaker Oats Company announced today that it is voluntarily recalling select Quaker Quinoa Granola Bars. The company’s recall comes after SunOpta, a large producer and distributor of sunflower seeds, announced a sizable recall of its products, sparking a number of secondary recalls by companies who used the SunOpta seeds in their products or further distributed them to other companies.
Quaker Recalls Granola Bars While Further Investigating Issue With FDA
The recall comes after Quaker discovered that one of its appliers had distributed sunflower seeds potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, a potentially lethal bacteria that disproportionately affects young children, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems.
In a statement released on its website, the company stated that the “vast majority of potentially affected Quaker products never reached retail shelves.”
The company is “working closely with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to further investigate this issue.” In the interim, however, out of an “abundance of caution” Quaker made the decision to initiate a recall of the following two products:
- Quaker Quinoa Granola Bars Yogurt, Fruit & Nut Medley, sold in 6.1 ounce boxes marked with UPC code 30000 32243 and “Best Before” dates of 10/16/2016 and 10/17/2017; and
- Quaker Quinoa Granola Bars Chocolate Nut Medley, sold in 6.1 ounce boxes marked with UPC code 30000 32241 and “Best Before” dates of 10/10/2016 and 10/11/2016.
According to the company, no illnesses have been associated with the recalled products to date and there are no other Quaker products “involved in this situation” at this time.
Quaker Products Part of Second Massive Listeria Recall
While recent media focus has been on the recall of over 350 different types of frozen vegetables sold under 40+ brand names, another Listeria recall linked to a single source company has set off a wave of secondary recalls.
The initial SunOpta recall mentioned above led TreeHouse Foods to recall a number of snacks that contain sunflower seeds. The recall, announced on May 3rd and posted to the FDA website the next day, involved brand names including Natures Harvest, Meijer, Family Gourmet, HyVee (which also has products involved in the CRF Foods Recall), Lucerne and Gold Emblem, among others.
As opposed to the CRF Frozen Foods recall, which the CDC has tied to an outbreak of eight cases of Listeria, no illnesses have been reported in the sunflower seed recall to date; however, Listeria symptoms may take up to 70 days to appear after ingesting an infected product, and the CDC reporting database may not yet have connected related cases.
At this point, all consumers can do is check their pantries and refrigerators for recalled items, and then wait and see where things go from here.
