The Food and Drug Administration quietly closed an investigation into illnesses believed to be caused by the Lucky Charms breakfast cereal despite thousands of people reporting varying symptoms ranging from minor to severe.
Last month, 79 people said they fell ill after eating the sugary breakfast cereal, bringing the total number of victims for the year past 8,633, according to IWasPoisoned.com, a platform dedicated to reporting food-related illnesses.
The most common complaints were severe stomach cramps, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting, with some saying they also experienced "neon green" stools.
Despite this, the FDA said in a statement this week that it had ended its probe launched in April after finding "no pathogen or cause of the self-reported illnesses identified, despite extensive testing for numerous potential microbial and chemical adulterants," according to the New York Post.
Experts say it is confusing to the public that the investigation has ended despite people continuing to report getting sick from the cereal.
"Even though [the FDA] didn’t find a smoking gun, it would be nice to know whether the cereal is considered safe to eat," Hal King, founder of consulting firm Public Health Innovations, told the Post. "If people are still reporting an illness and they can’t define what it is, you and I would question why are people still reporting this and what’s the government’s role in investigating this."
A spokesperson for the agency declined to comment specifically on the investigation, but instead told The Post that generally complaints "of a less serious nature" were monitored.
"An FDA investigator may visit the person who made the complaint, collect product samples, and initiate inspections," the spokesperson said. "Complaints of a less serious nature or those that appear to be isolated incidents are monitored and the information may be used during a future inspection of a company to help the FDA identify problem areas in a production plant. The complaints are also discussed with the company management."
General Mills spokesperson Andrea Williams told the Post that they had "investigated concerns across our Lucky Charms manufacturing facilities and have not found any evidence of consumer illness tied to our products."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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