Is there a donut recall? Here’s what to know about all those listeria headlines

If you’ve skimmed your feeds today, there’s a good chance you’ve seen many headlines exclaiming that around two million donuts have been recalled due to possible listeria contamination. However, these headlines are a bit misleading as the recall happened over a month ago.

Confused? Here’s what to know about the listeria donut recall, whether your morning donut is safe to eat, and why you’re just hearing about the recall now.

What’s happened?

Over the past day, the internet has been flooded with articles about a massive donut recall, with two million of the tasty treats affected. However, though this recall is widely being reported on now—the second week in February—it was actually initiated at the beginning of January and has been completed for some time.

The recall centered around donuts that were produced and distributed by FGF Brands. On January 7, FGF initiated a voluntary recall of 60 of its donut products due to fears that they may have been contaminated with listeria. In total, about two million individual donuts were covered under the recall of the 60 products. This included some Dunkin’ branded donuts.

Given the flood of late reporting on the recall, FGF Brands has issued a statement clarifying that the recall now being reported “does not implicate anything that is currently, or was recently on the market.” It has further declared that “All donuts are completely safe to eat.”

If the recall is old, why is it being reported now?

Food recalls should be taken very seriously—especially when they involve possible listeria contamination. This is why so many publications report on such recalls. When a food is recalled, it’s common for a notice to appear on the Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts website operated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

But that’s not always the case. The FDA says no press release was issued about the original donut recall on January 7. As a result, the recall avoided media attention.

However, this month, the FDA published an enforcement report about the recall, designating the recall with a Class II status on February 5. It is this enforcement report that the media has picked up on. The FDA classifies recalled products into three categories—Class I, Class II, or Class III—based on the level of hazard the recalled product represents to consumers:

• Class I recalls involve products that can pose “serious adverse health consequences or death.”
• Class II recalls involve products that “may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences.”
• Class III recalls involves a product that “is not likely to cause adverse health consequences.”

It can take about a month for the FDA’s enforcement report to appear publicly in its database. And once the class level is assigned, news outlets often pick up on the recall again—or for the first time.

So are my donuts safe to eat?

When it comes to the January recall that has received so much attention today, FGF Brands says, it “was completed over a month ago (early January), and does not implicate anything that is currently, or was recently on the market.”

The company also says that no donuts or food surfaces ever actually ended up testing positive for listeria. (The voluntary recall was a precautionary measure.) And given that donuts don’t usually last for more than a week at most, it’s highly unlikely that anyone still has a donut covered under the recall in their possession.

That’s why FGF Brands now says that “All donuts are completely safe to eat.”

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