Lucky Charms cereal causing vomiting, diarrhea: report
Lucky Charms — the sugary breakfast cereal made by General Mills that has long used a leprechaun mascot — is believed to be making people sick nationwide, The Post has learned from reports on a consumer complaint website.
At least 139 consumers across the country reported they vomited and had diarrhea after eating a bowl of the cereal that’s marketed to kids, according to iwaspoisoned.com, a platform that tracks food-borne illnesses.
In March, Jan Judd of Heber City, Utah, said she ate a bowl as a snack one evening and a few hours later she was cramping up, nauseous and up much of the night with diarrhea.
“I felt lousy for 24 hours, even worse than I felt when I had COVID-19,” Judd told The Post.
Lacey Pack of Friona, Texas, gave her 3-year-old son Jackson a mid-afternoon snack of the cereal without milk on March 6. Several hours later, he began “projectile vomiting” and didn’t stop until the following day, she told The Post.
“The whole weekend my son was like a zombie on the couch,” she said.
The same day, her 5-year-old daughter, Harper, had a few bites of the cereal and came down with diarrhea, she said.
General Mills said it does not believe its cereal is the cause of these illnesses, but it also said that it is conducting an “ongoing review.”
“Food safety is our top priority. We are aware of consumer claims submitted via the website and have conducted a thorough internal investigation,” General Mills spokesperson, Andrea Williamson, said in a statement. “Based on our food safety programs and review of consumer feedback we’ve received directly, we do not believe these complaints are attributed to our product. We encourage consumers to please share their feedback directly with General Mills to ensure it is captured in our ongoing review.”
Another consumer from New Philadelphia, Ohio, reported having “green poop” from the cereal. “I feel so sick. I have the shakes,” the Ohio resident reported on iwaspoisoned.com in September.
The 58-year-old brand from General Mills – whose marshmallows come in the form of hearts, clovers, moons, diamonds and rainbows – began sickening people last July, iwaspoisoned.com founder Patrick Quade claimed.
Quade said he contacted the company in September, alerting General Mills to the reports but he did not hear back, he said.
The reports began to spike this year with 15 consumers complaining on the platform in February and 17 in March.
“When you have 139 cases and all people have the same reaction that seems highly suspect, but you’d still want to know what it is that’s causing these illnesses,” food safety attorney Bill Marler told The Post.
“Dry cereal is a category of food that rarely sees this kind of activity or food poisoinng reports,” Quade told The Post.
Nevertheless, in 2018 Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal caused a multi-state outbreak of salmonella in which 135 people in 36 states were infected and 34 people were hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kellogg also voluntarily recalled 28 million boxes of Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, Corn Pops and Honey Smacks cereals in 2010 because of a foul odor and flavor from the liners of the packages. Kellogg said at the time that 20 people complained about the smell and five people reported nausea and vomiting.
