FDA chocolate recall warns of ‘serious or life-threatening’ risk | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Americans eat an estimated 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate each year, which isn’t surprising, given how many delicious forms the sweet treat comes in. That rounds out to around 11 pounds per person of chocolate each year.

We don’t hold the title for the most chocolate consumed, though. That belongs to the Swiss, although the United States does produce more chocolate than any other country in the world.

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The FDA has strict production standards for the chocolate that U.S. companies produce and sell, including regulating the minimum amount of cocoa solids that have to be present in chocolate for the products to carry the chocolate label.

Beyond production issues, there are also many other rules in place to make sure people are not sickened by the chocolate they consume. Unfortunately, one company has failed to live up to these obligations recently, and its lapse is putting chocolate eaters at risk.

The FDA recently issued an urgent safety recall. The chocolate company originally alerted customers on June 25, 2025, and the FDA published it on June 30, 2025, in order to sound the alarm to the public as a whole and make sure word got out.

The FDA warned that the recall was a very serious one, with potentially life-threatening consequences.

The FDA is warning consumers that a chocolate product poses serious dangers.

Image source&colon; Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

FDA issues recall of popular chocolate items

The recalled items were made by the Mellace Family Brands California, Inc. of Warren, Ohio, and include Wegmans Semi-Sweet Chocolate Nonpareils. The affected items were distributed through Wegmans grocery stores in eight different states:

Delaware
Maryland
Massachusetts
North Carolina
New Jersey
New York
Pennsylvania
Virginia
Washington D.C.

The problem with the candies that prompted the recall is an undeclared allergen. It was discovered that the Nonpareils contained a milk allergen and were distributed in packaging that did not alert consumers to the presence of this ingredient.

A temporary breakdown in the supplier’s manufacturing process caused the problem to occur, and as the FDA alert makes clear, “people who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume this product with the lot codes shown below.”

Fortunately, the issue was discovered before anyone had an allergic reaction and suffered health consequences. Customers who bought the affected items are now being urged to return them to the place where they were purchased to obtain a full refund.

The impacted candies were sold in a plastic tub and include items with the following lot codes:

55021 BEST BY: DEC 28, 2025
55031 BEST BY: DEC 29, 2025
55491 BEST BY: FEB 13, 2026
55501 BEST BY: FEB 14, 2026
56061 BEST BY: APR 11, 2026
56071 BEST BY: APR 12, 2026

You can find your lot code and best by date on the left side of the candy tub.

Consumers need to pay attention to recall alerts

In 2024, 2,454 product recalls had already occurred in the United States across five key industries by the third quarter of the year, according to Sedgwick. These recalls affected a total of 580.4 million products. The five industries include medical devices, food, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and automotive.

Food saw a 112.7% increase in recalls in 2024 year, a disturbing number for those who expect and hope the products they consume will be safe.

Consumers should monitor the FDA for news of recalls to make sure they do not have affected products. The FDA has a searchable database of safety alerts online to help make that easier, with Wegman’s chocolate products currently topping the list as the most recent recall.

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Hopefully, consumers with serious milk allergies will see the news of the chocolate recall and return the items before any harm is done.