recalls posts
FeedPosted Mar 31st 2009 6:10PM by Sarah Gilbert (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Rants and raves, Kroger Co (KR), Kraft Foods'A' (KFT)

When we first noted a small-ish recall which were recalled yesterday and, at first blush, the alert looks as if it could be as widespread and enormous as the peanut butter recall (mollified a little by the fact peanuts are far more ubiquitous than pistachios).
recall of canned pistachios early yesterday, it was limited to
Kroger (NYSE:
KR) and, frankly, made little in the way of waves. Later, the news began to hearken to the
beginning of the peanut recall, in which I wondered how many foods could be impacted (oh, I had no idea!).
The pistachio nuts' originator, Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Calif., decided to recall its 2008 crop after
Kraft (NYSE:
KFT) tested some of its pistachio-containing products and found "several types of salmonella." Where the possibly tainted pistachios ended up isn't clear, but Kraft pulled a trail mix with pistachios.
The nuts were sent in 1,000-pound and 2000-pound bags to wholesalers, who then parceled the pistachios further to redistribute them among retailers and manufacturers. As I
wrote on DailyFinance, this is yet another example of a food industry that is built on logistics, not food; quality ingredients are marketing, not reality. Neither Kroger nor Kraft nor even (to point a finger at random) Unilever's
Haagen-Dazs ice cream can trace to the individual farm the origin of all of their ingredients, no matter how many times the packaging mentions it.
It's further proof that food safety is not truly possible in the industry as it currently stands.
Posted Jan 18th 2009 6:47AM by Douglas McIntyre (RSS feed)
Filed under: Before the bell, Bad news, Kellogg Co (K), Mattel, Inc (MAT)
Mattel (NYSE: MAT) had trouble with its stock price when lead was found in some of its toys. Now Kellogg (NYSE: K) may have a similar problem. Some of its peanut-based products may be a cause of the spread of a dangerous salmonella. The trouble has been traced to Peanut Corp. of America, a wholesaler and supplier to Kellogg.
Are Kellogg products among those tainted? It is too early to tell, but the fact that it is pulling 16 products off of grocery store shelves may spook shareholders.
Often shareholders consider selling stocks for reasons that are not rational. Since Kellogg is on a list of firms that may have dangerous products, people holding the stock may think it's an unnecessary risk. In the AP story on the deadly outbreak, Kellogg is the only public company mentioned.
The most visible link at the Kellogg website today says "Austin, Famous Amos & Keebler Product Recall."
Fair or not, reasonable or not, Kellogg opens down at the open on Tuesday.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
Posted Jan 15th 2009 3:00PM by Sarah Gilbert (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Scandals, Kellogg Co (K)
When I wrote yesterday about the
recall of peanut butter due to salmonella poisoning (which is now considered possibly responsible for five adults' deaths), I worried that the "complex" and "widespread" description of the outbreak by the CDC could mean that, not only was the institutional peanut butter spread to thousands of school and corporate cafeterias, but also, the peanut butter might be in other products. Today's move by
Kellogg (NYSE:
K) to
voluntarily pull Keebler and Austin peanut butter crackers off retailers' shelves says to me that
we could have no idea how "complex" and "widespread" this disease might be. Kellogg will be investigating to see if its products include tainted peanut butter.
Kellogg products included in the investigation include peanut butter sandwich crackers,
peanut butter and jelly sandwich crackers, cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers, and peanut butter-chocolate sandwich crackers. Kellogg stock was down about 60 cents on the news, to $42.07 as of 1 p.m.
'Green' moms are
calling the move by Kellogg a good one; but, as it's only removing items from shelves and not a recall (and is only one company when it could be many more which are affected by the tainted peanut butter), perhaps it doesn't go far enough. Part of the complication: Austin peanut butter crackers are sold in vending machines and small, independent convenience stores, among other places, making their removal fraught with mechanical and communication problems. And my money says more companies will soon follow suit and pull peanut butter off the market.
Posted Dec 16th 2008 4:02PM by Sarah Gilbert (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Consumer experience, Technology
Worried about the honesty and effectiveness of the toy-screening conducted by major toy manufacturers and retailers?
Zap 'em yourself with a Niton X-ray fluorescence analyzer, or XRF gun. That's what many consumer groups, including the Center for Environmental Health and HealthyToys.org, do in the continuing struggle to keep dangerous toys off retailer's shelves. The handheld guns go for $25,000 and emit mini x-rays which strike the toy; the "elements in that sample emit return rays with frequencies that indicate which elements are present and in what amounts."
Retailers and manufacturers are not pleased, contending that such guerilla testing is a poor manner of assessing a toy's safety. But the XRF gun is what the CPSC itself uses to test toys, which consumer groups point to as evidence that the technology is appropriate. (The CPSC goes on to send toys that read hot to a third-party laboratory for verification.) And anyway: this manner of testing actually uncovers toys which are toxic, much better than the CPSC's old strategy: go to stores, and look for the ones with bright colors (more likely to be tainted with lead). A comparison of the two strategies showed the XRF gun screening to have a far higher discovery rate, though of course many items that had high readings on the XRF gun were shown to be safe after further lab testing.
But who wants consumer advocacy groups out looking for bad toys? Certainly not the toy companies, who can only stand to be hurt by the increased scrutiny and "fear-mongering." In a column published earlier today I wrote about my
concern over the fate of small toymakers given the impending effective date of the CPSIA. I can't exactly shed big tears, then, for the bigger manufacturers and importers who might be hurt by the discovery of toxins (even if the alarm bells ring a bit too loudly and too soon). The two manners of dealing with the toxic toy issue -- attacking it in the streets with ray guns, or clamping a shackle of expensive testing around each toy before it hits the market -- both seem wrong-headed, one too reactive, the other too proactive. Isn't there a better middle ground?
Posted Nov 18th 2008 4:38PM by Sarah Gilbert (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Products and services

If one is honest with oneself, she will recognize that the most exotic ingredients in her Italian-themed frozen foods are likely the plastic trays they're packaged in. A new recall for Lean Cuisine frozen chicken meals ("approximately" 879,565 pounds of them) offers the addition of one more exotic ingredient: "foreign matter," namely bits of hard plastic of unknown origin that caused at least one injury.
The company which packaged the products, Nestle Prepared Foods Company of Springville, Utah, is voluntarily recalling the products after several consumer complaints and the lone injury. The three meals that are part of the recall are the 10.5-ounce "chicken mediterranean" pictured here; 9.5-ounce "pesto chicken with bow-tie pasta" and 12.5-ounce "chicken tuscan." Further information about specific bar codes and sell-by dates can be found at the
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.
While this is in no way a serious health risk, the enormous size of the recall and the timing -- coming in an environment in which budget-conscious consumers are beginning to question the true "convenience," nutritional value and safety of packaged food -- will be somewhat harmful for the convenience food industry as a whole. As someone who is taking a more cautious eye toward the food she is feeding her family, I have been asking questions such as, "if
pieces of hard plastic weren't even recognized until consumers complained, what
invisible ingredients have been slipping through without reparation or admittance?" In food, that what you can't see; and don't recognize for many years; is the most harmful of all.
Posted Oct 25th 2008 9:10AM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Competitive strategy, Mattel, Inc (MAT), Hasbro Inc (HAS)
This post is part of a feature on companies and products that our bloggers think are in need of a makeover. See all 26.
Founded in 1945 in a garage workshop in southern California, Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) is now the world's biggest toy maker, with a market cap of about $5.2 billion. Number two Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS) has a market cap of about $4.2 billion. Mattel produces from everything Barbie and American Girl, to Hot Wheels, Fisher Price toys, Scrabble, and the Magic 8 Ball, as well as tie-ins with Pixar, the Dark Knight, Harry Potter, and Nickelodeon. However, in 2002 Mattel shut its last factory in the United States, and since then most of its products have been produced in China.
That decision came back to bite Mattel when, beginning in the summer of 2007, it was forced to issue a series of recalls of Chinese-made toys that contained lead paint. The company is still reeling from that PR disaster, which for some reason included an apology from Mattel to the Chinese people. The situation prompted BloggingStocks contributor Tom Barlow a year ago to suggest (tongue in cheek) that Mattel merge with Waste Management Inc. (NYSE: WMI) so that toxic toys could go directly where they belonged, bypassing the middleman (i.e., the children). That would be one way to make over the company, I guess.
As Christmas of 2007 approached, it looked like the worst might be behind Mattel. The year-end numbers were respectable, and some investors were beginning to eye Mattel again. But first quarter 2008 results were disappointing, and by mid year, expectations were very low. The share price has continued to slide since the recalls, reaching a multi-year low recently. While there was a copyright infringement lawsuit settled in Mattel's favor (though they didn't get as much out of it as they wanted), and they are no doubt hoping for the Dark Knight and other tie-in merchandise to help boost what otherwise looks like it could be dismal holiday season for retailers, the newest thing Mattel has to contend with is claims by some parents that one of its dolls secretly promotes Islam, which Mattel denies.
Continue reading Makeover needed: Mattel
Posted Aug 11th 2008 2:10PM by Elizabeth Harrow (RSS feed)
Filed under: Industry, Consumer experience, Ford Motor (F), Marketing and advertising
This post is one in a series on prominent company nicknames. See all 25, and share your thoughts and memories about Ford below in the comments.
I didn't grow up in one of those families that placed a high premium on American-made goods. If the Japanese can make it better, we'll buy it from them! was the general consensus. And those foreign autos served the Harrows well. My parents bought their 1984 Toyota Tercel when it was new, and that unattractive but reliable compact was part of the family through the beginning of my college career -- even surviving my first, hilarious attempts to operate a manual transmission. So, it wasn't until I moved in with my friend Debbie, as an adult, that I learned the details behind a particularly unflattering nickname for the Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F).
There are those who would joke that the letters in "FORD" stand for "Fix Or Repair Daily." I know from experience that if you make that particular wisecrack within Debbie's earshot, she probably won't crack a smile. Instead, you can almost see her wheels churning, as though she's trying to calculate the thousands she's already poured into her Ford Focus -- or maybe she's just trying to predict which part will break down next.
During the time we shared a mailbox, it was a not-out-of-the-ordinary occurrence for Debbie to receive recall notices bearing the familiar Ford logo. These repair-o-grams arrived with such frequency that the exact number now escapes my memory; when I questioned her via text message, she replied, "I have had six. Stupid car."
Continue reading Company nicknames: Ford's reputation for quality found on road dead
Posted May 15th 2008 11:46AM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Consumer experience, Ford Motor (F)

If you own a Ford F-150, or a Lincoln Mark LT pickup truck, then you want to pay special attention to this, as
Ford (NYSE:
F) has announced that more than
655,000 of these vehicles are being recalled at this time.
The reason behind the current recalls is a possible problem with a hose that can affect the trucks' ability to brake properly. So far, Ford claims that there have been 11 accidents resulting from the faulty hoses, but that there have been no injuries to date.
The vehicles in question involve the 2005 and 2006 models of the trucks that come with the 5.4 liter 3-valve engines. If you have one of these trucks you should contact your local Ford dealer as soon as possible and get your replacement hose, at no cost to you.
Most of the trucks in question are located in the United States, which accounts for more than 600,000 of the trucks. Canadian residents account for another 50,000 vehicles, with the small remainder being located in other countries around the world.
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
Posted Apr 9th 2008 12:42PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: International markets, Bad news, Products and services, Consumer experience

An electrical problem in Chrysler LLC's Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger vehicles is resulting in a massive recall of 212,347 cars to fix the problem.
The vehicles in question involve models from 2007-2008 that deploy standard tire pressure monitoring systems. Apparently, electrical connectors in the system have been rusting, leading to problems starting the engine, dead batteries, inoperative cruise control, or even the vehicle's engine stalling.
Chrysler has stated that there have been no injuries reported as a result of the problem, but that it had already received nine reports from consumers that their engines had stalled out on them.
Continue reading Chrysler recalls nearly a quarter million vehicles
Posted Jan 22nd 2008 5:57PM by Gary E. Sattler (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Press releases, Products and services, Consumer experience, Deere and Co (DE)
On January 16, 2008, a voluntary recall of approximately 5,400 John Deere Compact Utility Tractors was initiated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in cooperation with
Deere and Co. (NYSE:
DE). The problem with the tractors is described as a forward drive pedal that can get stuck, creating a potential for loss of control and injury to people.
The recalled tractor's model number is 3203, and you may
check the CPSC press release for specific serial numbers. It is suggested that consumers discontinue using these particular tractors and contact a John Deere dealer to schedule a free repair. You may reach
Deere & Company at (800) 537-8233 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday and between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. ET Saturday. You are also invited to visit the company website at: www.johndeere.com.
Posted Dec 13th 2007 1:22PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Press releases, Products and services, Consumer experience, Merck and Co (MRK)

Drug maker
Merck & Co. (NYSE :
MRK) announced yesterday that it had
recalled slightly over one million doses [subscription required] of its
childhood vaccine Hib.
For parents out there, this recall, at this time, appears to be more proactive than anything else. According to Merck, the company decided to recall approximately 1.2 million doses of the popular childhood vaccine after it discovered that the equipment used to make the vaccine had been contaminated with bacteria.
For those of you who are not familiar with the Hib vaccine, it is used to vaccinate children against meningitis, pneumonia and other serious illnesses.
Continue reading Merck (MRK) issues recall for childhood vaccines
Posted Nov 30th 2007 6:10AM by Peter Cohan (RSS feed)
Filed under: Consumer experience, Oil, Headline news, Housing
This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007 feature. Voting has now closed and readers have chosen rising fuel prices as the most worrisome consumer trend. Be sure to let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.
The most Worrisome Consumer Trend of 2007 is ... whichever one you choose. The following is my analysis of four candidates -- ranging from can't sleep at night to minor complaint:
- China product recalls. 30 million Chinese products -- many of them toys -- have been recalled in the last several months. With the holiday shopping season in full swing, this has to be among the most worrisome consumer trends. It's not easy to find out if a product is made in China. This list of U.S. made toys might help, and this list of Made in America products might also be useful.
- Subprime and mortgage meltdown. The cost to society of the subprime mortgage meltdown could be as high as $4 trillion. Two million people are expected to lose their homes to foreclosure by the end of 2008. If you are one of these people, this trend is definitely costing you sleep. And since there's no way of knowing how widespread the damage will be, everyone in the world should be worrying about this one.
Continue reading Best & Worst of 2007: Most worrisome consumer trends
Posted Nov 8th 2007 9:25AM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Consumer experience, China, Scandals

Unfortunately for parents out there preparing for the upcoming holiday season, this past year's toy recalls have to be a constant reason for concern, and today we get
news of another recall. By now we are pretty adjusted to reading news of recalls due to high levels of lead paint, but today's recall involves something a little more alarming ... a date rape drug!
Yes, you read that right, it has been announced that millions of toy products in North America and Australia have been taken off the shelves after it was discovered that they contained chemicals that, when digested, convert into the date rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate (
street name of GHB). The toys in question are toy beads that go by the name Aqua Dots, and are considered a highly popular holiday item, which is distributed by Toronto-based Spin Master Toys. For Australian consumers, the toy sells under the name of Bindeez.
Just how popular is this toy line? This year in Australia it was named toy of the year. Just how dangerous is the ingestion of the drug? If swallowed, one of these beads can induce unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death.
Continue reading Latest recall: 'Aqua Dots' toys contain date rape drug GHB
Posted Nov 6th 2007 5:55PM by Sarah Gilbert (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Amazon.com (AMZN), Mattel, Inc (MAT)

Is it time to start selling your
Mattel, Inc., (NYSE:
MAT) stock? In Yet Another incidence of Fisher Price toys being tainted (figuratively and literally) with lead,
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:
AMZN)
has pulled the Fisher Price Medical Kit from its web site after a
Consumer Reports article that questioned the lead content in the kit's toy blood pressure cuff. Mattel has insisted that children can play doctor safely because the toy "meets the requirements set forth in the federal regulations and international consumer product safety standards, including the existing standards for lead content." Note Mattel did not claim that the toy was free from lead.
As I've mentioned before, these toy recalls have lead (har!) me to the conclusion that
it's just not worth buying plastic toys for my children any more. I've been flipping through the
Nova Natural catalog to plan for holiday buying and regularly carting off boxes of my boys' plastic toys to Goodwill.
Judging by the excitement over
leaked Black Friday ads, it seems as if I'm a rarity. This news does bring out a couple of questions, however:
- Will we soon start seeing vigilante recalls like this one from Amazon.com as retailers work to minimize their risk in toy recalls?
- Does it cost enough to effect a recall that it might make sense to anger a major supplier like Mattel?
- Isn't this recall just a little bit too ironic? My blood pressure is rising, too!
Answers would be appreciated; though of course my biggest question will remain unanswered for some time, ergo,
how long will consumers continue to put up with unsafe products?
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