Consumers may want to be more decisive when purchasing or ordering their favorite drinks.
So far in 2024, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reported the recall of 28 drinks because they contain harmful chemicals, drugs, or bacteria that are all detrimental to consumers’ health and wellness. Just four of the drinks on the list didn’t fall into this category.
What’s been recalled?
Here is the full list of drinks that are under scrutiny by the FDA:
Schweppes Zero Sugar Ginger Ale
Mug Root Beer
Martinelli’s Apple Juice
Fiji Water
Charles Boggini’s Flavoring Base, Pink Lemonade, Yellow Lemonade, and Yellow Lemonade X
The Widemann Company’s Tapee Tea
Rise Brewing Organic’s Original and Vanilla Oat Milk
Nordic Naturals Baby’s Vitamin D3 Liquid
Barsotti Organic Carrot Juice
Trader Joe’s 100% Organic Carrot Juice
Powerade Zero Mixed Berry and Fruit Punch
Powerade Mountain Berry Blast
Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water
Enfamil Nutramigen Hypoallergenic Infant Formula Powder
House of Coffee beans bags
Longreen Reishi Coffee and Cordyceps coffee
Xlim Express Coffee
Yogi Echinacea Immune Support Tea
Sammy’s Milk Goat Milk Toddler Formula
Crecelac Powdered Goat Milk Infant Formula
Mt. Capra Goat Milk Formula Recipe Kit
What are the health risks?
All of the drinks that have been recalled so far this year all come with different warnings.
For instance, a few of the drinks were marketed as having no sugar, while they did indeed contain full sugar. This was the case for Schweppes Zero Sugar Ginger Ale.
Conversely, Mug Root Beer had the opposite problem – it filled cans that were labeled as the regular version of its soda with the sugar-free version. These kinds of mixups can have detrimental effects for consumers who need to be extra careful about their sugar intake.
However, other beverages posed much greater risks to consumers’ health. Martinelli’s apple juice was recalled because it contained large traces of arsenic – a metal that’s often used in pesticides. The health risks associated with arsenic exposure include a higher risk of several types of cancer, a weakened immune system, high blood pressure, heart disease, and more.
Several drinks contained different food dyes – Red 40 and Yellow 5 – that can increase the risk of cancer when consumed long-term.
Fiji Water, a drink that most consumers likely don’t anticipate to be harmful to their health, was recalled for containing manganese and three different kinds of bacteria.
The risks of infant formula
Infant formula has also been getting a lot of attention so far this year. Several different brands of formula have been recalled – some for not meeting the FDA’s guidelines for infant formula and others for containing toxic chemicals that can be harmful for infants.
Enfamil’s Nutramigen formula powder was recalled earlier this year after it was reported to be contaminated with Cronobacter sakazakii, a bacteria that can cause meningitis or sepsis.
Consumers can stay up-to-date on any food and drinks the FDA is recalling throughout the year here.