At least 73 people in 31 states were infected with Salmonella Mbandaka, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If you’re a cereal lover (and honestly, who isn’t? I mean, there’s nothing better than a midnight bowl of cereal), you might want to doublecheck the pantry. On Thursday, June 14, Kellogg’s voluntarily recalled 15.3 oz. (UPC code of 38000 39103) and 23 oz. (UPC code of 38000 14810) packages of Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal due to a “potential presence of salmonella.”
RECALL: Do not eat recalled Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal. This cereal has been linked to an outbreak of 73 salmonella infections from 31 states. https://t.co/G5WyEiWp5A pic.twitter.com/cXcOfQgtkP
— CDC (@CDCgov) June 15, 2018
So far, 73 people have fallen ill with this strain of salmonella: Alabama (2), Arizona (1), California (5), Connecticut (3), Georgia (2), Illinois (1), Indiana (3), Kentucky (1), Louisiana (2), Massachusetts (5), Maryland (1), Michigan (4), Mississippi (1), Montana (1), North Carolina (3), New Hampshire (1), New Jersey (3), New York (7), Ohio (1), Oklahoma (2), Oregon (1), Pennsylvania (5), Rhode Island (2), South Carolina (1), Tennessee (1), Texas (2), Utah (1), Virginia (4), Washington (3), Wisconsin (1), West Virginia (3).
According to the CDC, 24 people have been hospitalized. Fortunately, no deaths have been reported.
Woman Sues Kellogg’s After Developing Life-Threating Disease
Oklahoma resident Winnie Lemieux filed a lawsuit against the company just one week after Kellogg’s recalled the cereal. According to the suit, Lemieux began feeling ill around May 24. On June 3, she was admitted to the Southwest Medical Center in Liberal, Kansas, with infectious colitis, hyponatremia, and hypokalemia, as well as being septic. Lemieux also tested positive for salmonella.
“Salmonella outbreaks linked to cereal are rare; there have only been a handful in the last 20 years,” Bill Marler, managing partner at Marler Clark said in a statement. “Frankly, I expected more from Kellogg’s after it was linked to the deadly salmonella Peanut Corporation of America outbreak in 2009. Kellogg’s needs to up its food safety game.”
Salmonella is no joke. If you or a loved one are experiencing diarrhea, fever, or abdominal cramping, call a doctor immediately.
