Oh My Gosh, Not Chocolate Too!

When I first heard about the recalls on Cadbury Chocolate, the first thing I thought of was "Thank goodness I didn't buy any of those from that little kid outside of Lucky's yesterday!"

The next thing I thought was "Not chocolate too."

It seems the chocolate company Cadbury is temporarily taking certain chocolate products off the market -- but only in Asia and Australia. Thank goodness it's not here in the US.
Cadbury is withdrawing a range of its chocolate products and Choclairs -- all made at Cadbury's Beijing plant -- from the market in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Australia. Cadbury states their products here are safe.

Another sweet -- White Rabbit Candy -- is being recalled because it might be tainted with melamine. QFCO Inc. of Burlingame, Calif., is recalling White Rabbit Candy, which was distributed in California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington state. All packages have a logo of a white rabbit on the front with the words "White Rabbit." So far they haven't linked any illnesses to the White Rabbit Candy.

If you have any, you can return White Rabbit Candy to the place of purchase for a full refund. For more information on the White Rabbit Candy recall, call QFCO at 650-697-6633.

Evidently all this recalling has scared the heck out of our US manufacturers, because all of a sudden they're recalling products for incorrect labeling, which if products aren't labeled correctly, someone could have a strong allergic reaction to something in the product that they didn't know was there.

The first of these was back in April of this year when KFC Corporation voluntarily recalled its Double Chocolate Chip Cakes because they contain eggs, milk, wheat, soy ingredients and possibly traces of tree nuts, and are not individually labeled with ingredient information. They say they plan to start offering them again after they have the proper labeling on the packages.

Next came Hershey's. In September the Hershey Company started recalling 7.25-ounce plastic bottles of Hershey's Chocolate Shell Topping, which can be poured over ice cream, because it contains almonds that aren't noted on the label. If you have any of the recalled Hershey's Chocolate Shell Topping, call Hershey's consumer relations department at 800-468-1714

Last, but not least See's Candies, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif., is recalling 16-ounce bags of See's Candies Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips because the product may contain undeclared traces of milk. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products.

The FDA is following China's melamine problem. As of Sept. 25, FDA testing of milk-based products imported into the U.S. from China hadn't turned up any melamine contamination.
The United States, meanwhile, said inspectors would expand testing for Chinese products that may contain high levels of milk or milk proteins. The Food and Drug Administration has been very concerned over Chinese infant formula brought into the United States for Chinese markets. Normally the formula is banned from import. The FDA said its investigators have not found the Chinese infant formula in question during visits to more than 1,000 stores. Those are mainly in cities with large Chinese communities, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; and New York. The FDA plans to continue such checks it said, and "has broadened its domestic and import sampling and testing of milk-derived ingredients and finished food products containing milk, such as candies, desserts, and beverages that could contain these ingredients from Chinese sources."

Chinese police have arrested 40 people in the tainted-milk scandal, including 22 announced Monday in northern China's Hebei province. Nineteen of those were managers of pastures, breeding farms and milk-purchasing stations, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing a panel investigating the case.

Authorities say they raided 41 locations in Hebei and seized 490 pounds (222 kilograms) of melamine. Melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants.

Eighteen arrests were announced earlier. They include two brothers who face charges of selling contaminated milk. The brothers could face death if convicted, according to China Daily, a state-run newspaper. Somehow after them executing their prior head of Food Quality Control over there when all the dog food was recalled, I think I would take them pretty seriously about punishment before being a part of something like this. LOL