The Meals and Drug Administration mentioned on Monday that it was trying into experiences that 1000’s of individuals had change into in poor health after consuming Fortunate Charms, the frosted toasted oat cereal with marshmallows marketed as “magically scrumptious.”
The investigation comes after greater than 3,000 individuals who mentioned they’d been sickened after consuming Fortunate Charms submitted experiences to iwaspoisoned.com, a web site the place customers can share experiences of diseases that they think are associated to meals merchandise. A number of experiences on the location detailed bouts of diarrhea, nausea, abdomen ache and vomiting after consumption.
The F.D.A. mentioned in a press release on Monday that it had obtained greater than 100 submissions associated to Fortunate Charms this 12 months by way of its personal reporting system for opposed occasions and product complaints.
“The F.D.A. takes severely any experiences of potential adulteration of a meals that will additionally trigger diseases or damage,” the company mentioned.
Andrea Williamson, a spokeswoman for Normal Mills, which makes the cereal, mentioned in a press release on Monday that inner investigations had “not discovered any proof of client sickness linked to the consumption of Fortunate Charms.”
The corporate takes client experiences severely, Ms. Williamson mentioned.
“Meals security is our high precedence,” she mentioned. “We encourage customers to please share any issues immediately with Normal Mills to make sure they are often appropriately addressed.”
The cereal’s Twitter account shared an analogous message, responding to posts from customers who mentioned they’d change into in poor health after consuming it by saying that inner investigations had discovered no proof of a hyperlink.
Fortunate Charms, which has been round since 1964, is a frosted, toasted oat cereal with marshmallow “charms” within the form of hearts, stars, horseshoes, moons, clovers, unicorns, rainbows and balloons. Its mascot, Fortunate, a leprechaun in a inexperienced hat and matching jacket, is understood for his well-known catchphrase in a long time of tv commercials that “frosted Fortunate Charms” are “magically scrumptious.”