FDA recalls popular food products including Pringles and Cheerios — says 'destroy' them ASAP

Customers have been urged to destroy the affected products and ask for a refund.

PUBLISHED JAN 29, 2026

Representative image of a shopper at Costco. (Cover image source: Getty Images | Photo by Mark Peterson/Corbis)

A typical FDA recall notice applies to only one type of product at a time. However, a recent notice covers thousands of products that have been recalled by the Federal body over the presence of rodent and bird contamination. Consumption of these products could lead to several illnesses and infections, such as Salmonella or leptospirosis. Customers who might have purchased them have been urged to destroy the items. So far, no illnesses have yet been reported.

Representative image of a shopping cart. (Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Robert Nickelsberg)

Gold Star Distribution issued the recall notice, which affected thousands of food items, pet foods, beauty products, and drugs distributed to three states, as per a report in People. The recall notice was first released on December 26 and prompted after the FDA found the facility was operating under “insanitary conditions, including the presence of rodent excreta, rodent urine, and bird droppings.” The scary part is that a lot of the items recalled were food products.

The FDA has released a comprehensive list of all the products recalled, along with their necessary details. Some of the popular products that are affected by the recall include candies like Jolly Ranchers, Skittles, and Sour Patch Kids, snacks like Pringles and Takis, breakfast cereals like boxes of Cheerios and Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Cereal, beverages like Gatorade, Coca-Cola, Smart Water, and Arizona Iced Teas, and other pantry staples.

Shoppers wait in line while shopping | Getty Images | Photo by Tom Pennington — Representative image of American shoppers.(Image credit: Getty Images | Photo by Tom Pennington)

The FDA has slapped a Class-II warning label on all the products affected by the recall. As per the federal body, a Class-II warning means that the product “may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.”

It also affected items like pet food, deodorants, and medical essentials. According to the report, the company has urged customers who might have purchased the affected products to destroy and discard them, instead of sending them back. It also claimed that Gold Star would be happy to provide a refund to the customers for their trouble. The affected products were sold in three states: Indiana, Minnesota, and North Dakota, with the FDA notice including a list of stores.

Representative image of an FDA building. (Image credit: Getty Images | Photo by hapabapa)

“Adverse reactions or quality problems experienced with the use of this product may be reported to the FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program either online, by regular mail, or by fax,” the FDA report added. “Additionally, the FDA’s SmartHub is designed to help the public navigate to the appropriate form or resources to report a problem with an FDA regulated human or animal product (e.g. defects in the quality or safety of a product, or labeling issue), adverse health experience (e.g. injury, illness, or death associated with a product), or facility issue (e.g. an FDA regulated facility issue such as a whistleblower report or sanitation issue).”

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