FDA Investigating Why Midwesterners, Others Getting Sick From Lucky Charms

When he says "They're always after me Lucky Charms," Lucky the Leprechaun might be referring to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) efforts to figure out why people from Illinois and several other states have found themselves complaining of illness after eating it.

In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit that I haven't had a bowl of Lucky Charms in a couple of decades--but the last time I ate it, the only thing I complained of afterwards was feeling like I was bouncing off the walls with sugar-shock.

Not that that was a bad thing.

While The FDA Looks Into This Issue, Cereal-Maker General Foods Says That They Haven't Found A Clear Link Between Lucky Charms And Getting Sick

While the FDA says that since the beginning of the year, they've received over 100 complaints about people falling ill after consuming Lucky Charms cereal, the website IWasPoisoned.com has purportedly collected thousands more reports of bad reactions.

So what exactly does "falling Ill," or "feeling sick," or "a bad reaction" really mean in this particular case?

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Stomach pain

We Get Reports Of Food-Borne Illnesses All The Time, But Rarely Do They Involve Cereal

Apparently, the reason for that is the baking process that cereals go through kills off a lot of germs. But, if the product picks up some sort of contamination during the glazing or packaging processes, you can be exposed to it because we don't cook our cereals at home before digging in.

Gizmodo.com:

In 2018, at least 100 people were sickened by Salmonella bacteria found in lots of Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, which led to a wide-scale recall. Multiple salmonella outbreaks were also once traced back to the same cereal brand, Malt-O-Meal—and indeed the same manufacturing plant—in 1998 and 2008.

General Mills, maker of Lucky Charms, says that they want customers who believe that they were sickened by the cereal to reach out and let them know.