If you have crackers in your pantry, you might want to give them a good, hard look. Your favorite crackers are being recalled for this scary reason: the possible risk of Salmonella contamination. Yes, it’s unfortunately true. Not even the best snack foods are safe from the risk of food-borne illnesses! On Saturday, July 21st, Mondelez Global, which announced that the company would be voluntarily recalling certain Ritz products.
Luckily, at this time, no illnesses due to contaminated Ritz crackers have been reported, and the company issued the recall out of extra caution. Still, you don’t want to tempt fate by eating crackers that could be contaminated with Salmonella.
The products that were affected contain whey powder, and the supplier of that whey powder recalled the ingredient because it might contain Salmonella. The Ritz products affected are Ritz Bitz and Ritz cracker sandwiches that contain cheese. These products are sold across the United States, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, so there are a lot of them.
To figure out if the Ritz you have need to be returned, you can look at the sell-by date and the retail UPC, both of which vary widely in this case. You can check out the entire list of recalled products right here. If you have any of the items on the list, you can return them at the store they were purchased at, or you can simply throw them out. Just don’t eat them!
Salmonella definitely isn’t something you want to mess around with.
16 varieties of Ritz cracker products are being recalled over potential risk of salmonella. https://t.co/D76HZBFqPH pic.twitter.com/NJ7GBD8Zly
— ABC News (@ABC) July 23, 2018
As the announcement from Mondelez Global points out, “Salmonella is a microorganism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.” Though it is rare, Salmonella can enter the bloodstream and cause severe illnesses such as arterial infections, endocarditis, and arthritis.
Food items contaminated with Salmonella have been an unfortunate trend over the last few months. Back in the spring, there was a huge egg recall that affected millions of eggs throughout the country. In the beginning of the summer, pre-cut melon was recalled for Salmonella contamination after over 60 people fell ill. Also, in June, Kellogg’s issued a recall for Honey Smacks cereal after an outbreak in about 33 states. Even scarier: Just recently, raw turkey was identified as the culprit behind Salmonella outbreaks all over the country, and the CDC hasn’t even figured out exactly where it’s coming from.
Anyone else feeling a little freaked out about eating, well… anything? Yeah, us too.
