I took the time to fully read FDA Warning Letter sent to Kerry, Inc., that manufactured Honey Smacks for Kellogg’s. Here is the somewhat redacted beginning:
The United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) inspected your Kerry, Inc. facility, located at 320 West Gridley Road, Gridley, IL 61744-8723 from June 14 to 29, 2018. The inspection was initiated as (b)(4) in three environmental swabs taken from your (b)(4) cereal (“cereal”) production rooms during FDA’s inspection. Further, FDA’s Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) analysis of the three isolates of (b)(4).
Here are the highlights/lowlights of the Warning Letter:
Between September 29, 2016 and May 16, 2018, you repeatedly found Salmonella throughout your facility, including in cereal production rooms. During this time period, you had 81 positive Salmonella environmental samples and 32 positive Salmonella vector samples (samples taken in response to finding a positive on routine testing), including four Salmonella (b)(4) samples in the cereal coating room (Line (b)(4)) and one Salmonella (b)(4) sample in the cereal (b)(4) room (Line (b)(4)). Further, you had repeated findings of other Salmonella species in some production lines and rooms used for the manufacture of cereal. These repeated findings of Salmonella in your environment should have resulted in a reanalysis of your food safety plan as required by 21 CFR § 117.170(b)(4) and the identification of contamination of RTE cereal with environmental pathogens as a hazard requiring a preventive control (i.e., sanitation preventive control).
So, in the coming days, as I explain to clients how a company, like Kerry, can seem to ignore 113 positive Salmonella samples and continue to manufacture and ship the Sugar Smacks. The Kerry, the FDA and Kellogg’s will need to explain this to the general public. My clients and a part of the public is included in:
Total Salmonella Illnesses: 135
Hospitalizations: 34
Last illness onset: 8/29/2018

From Food Safety News:
I have been a
As of September 19, 2018, 18 people infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O26 were reported from 4 states – Colorado (10), Florida (15), Massachusetts (1) and Tennessee (1). Illnesses started on dates ranging from July 5, 2018 to July 25, 2018. Ill people ranged in age from one year to 75, with a median age of 16. Sixty-seven percent of ill people were male. Of 18 people with information available, 6 (33%) were hospitalized, including one person who died in Florida.
Cargill Ground Beef 2018 – 17 Ill, 1 Death – E. coli O26
Today the CDC reported that it, public health and regulatory officials in several states, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis infections.
SPEAKER: William Marler, Managing Partner, Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm
Prior E. coli outbreak in 2009 and recall in 2013.