This month’s recalls are a good indicator of the wide range of reasons that products are recalled.  Some of these may strike you as a bit humorous, but food-borne illness is no joke.  If you have any of these products, go to the link and check to see if your product matches the code in the recall.  If it does, dispose of the product, following the instructions from the manufacturer.

You won’t turn green from eating it, but why buy food that’s past its prime?

Shelf life was actually front page news very recently—on the first page of the Chicago Tribune’s business section.  Here’s the story:  Shopping at Dominick’s (a supermarket chain), Jill Cataldo (a well-known Chicago-area coupon blogger) said she found 761 expired items during  various shopping trips, and some of the items were really antiques, with “use by” dates going back to 2008.  Cataldo has been hearing about this problem for more than a year now, she says—from her blog readers and from students in her coupon classes. On Facebook, Dominick’s has been receiving a lot of angry comments from customers who have taken home expired food.

From Valentine’s Day well past Easter, most of us cannot avoid the scent and resist the taste of chocolate.  It’s prominently displayed in stores; we buy it and/or receive it as a gift; once the box is open, the candies just seem to pop out of their designated squares and into our mouths. Then the guilt sets in.  For some people, guilt relates to cholesterol or weight worries.  Others have pangs of social conscience because they’ve heard that consumers of chocolate are actually supporting slavery.

Let’s start with the funny one.  It sounds like a joke, but it isn’t.  Still, feel free to laugh since no illnesses have been reported from it.  The name of the product being recalled is—I kid you not—Toxic Waste® Nuclear Sludge® Chew Bars.  Mouth-watering moniker, no?  This item is imported from Pakistan, so perhaps something got lost in translation.

What’s wrong with these chew bars? In a word, lead.  Imagine that—lead in your sludge. The lead was found in only one flavor, the cherry (due to the red dye), but that’s more than enough. One lot was found to have .24 parts per million; the FDA acceptable limit is .1 parts per million.  Lead, of course, has the potential to cause health problems, especially for infants, young children, and pregnant women.