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‘Do Not Eat This Cereal’: CDC Issues Blunt Warning About Honey Smacks as Outbreak Grows

  • July 16, 2018

The popular Kellogg’s cereal Honey Smacks is at the center of a massive recall and warnings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) not to eat it. Linked to a salmonella outbreak, Honey Smacks is the suspect agent in sickening 100 people, 30 of whom have been hospitalized, with salmonella, The Washington Post reports. The CDC was very specific in its warning: “Do not eat Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal of any size package or with any ‘best if used by’ date.”

It seems like hardly a month goes by without a food recall of some sort occurring. The spring recall of romaine lettuce, which was linked to E. coli poisonings that sickened dozens and killed several, is one of the most recent ones. But the Kellogg’s and salad greens cases are not alone. An uptick in foodborne diseases has been ongoing and escalating for several years, and with intercontinental travel and shipping of animals and foods across the world, the inherent dangers of spreading disease have grown, too.

Packaged and processed ready-to-eat foods aren’t the only causative agents, either. From General Mills’ flour to multivitamins to factory farmed eggs and chicken, there are many examples of industrialized foods causing sickness and even deaths.

Your pets aren’t immune from processed foods dangers, either. You need look no further than this summer’s filing of a class action lawsuit claiming that dog food contaminated with the euthanasia drug pentobarbital sickened and killed dogs to know that processed foods of all sorts are suspect when it comes to safety.

So what can you do? If you’re a pet owner it pays to read labels and become more knowledgeable about pet nutrition so that you can make the best diet choices for your own dog or cat.

If you’re shopping for your family, the best thing to do is avoid processed and packaged foods, period. Focus on eating fresh, locally grown foods that are in season, typically a bargain at that time of year, or by growing some of your own. Remember to choose organic, grass-fed/pasture-raised beef, poultry, and dairy, in addition to organic produce. Shop local with meats, too, or at least buy through a co-op where you can talk to the producers and quiz them on how they raise their meats, which help you make good grocery shopping decisions.