Read This If You Have Hershey's Chocolate Shell Topping At Home

On May 5, chocolate giant Hershey's initiated a voluntary recall of 7.25-ounce bottles of their Chocolate Shell Topping. The reason, as the FDA shared, is that a contracted manufacturer mistakenly filled 1,700 of those bottles with Heath Shell Topping, which contains almonds and, as such, it poses a serious problem for those with nut allergies.

The contaminated bottles were in a single lot shipped between April 15 and May 3 with the product code 25JSAS1, which you can find on the product label if you are concerned you may have one in question. Bottles of the Chocolate Shell Topping bought prior to April 15 are in the clear, and no other Hershey's products were affected or are part of the recall. The manufacturer has also instructed all retailers to immediately remove the items from store shelves and asked consumers to call 1-866-528-6848 for a full refund.

A search for Hershey's in the FDA's recall notifications catalog reveals that this is the first time since at least the beginning of 2017 that Hershey's has been prompted to issue a recall of this size.

In 2017, however, Hershey's did have to recall some products from Australia's Aldi's stores. As The Daily Mail explained, the reason was due to a similar case of undeclared allergens that could set off reactions to wheat, gluten, and nuts (almonds again, in this case). 

According to WebMD, having a nut allergy is when your immune system senses a threat from the proteins found in the food and tries to fight them. This can result in hives or a skin rash, and be as serious as vomiting and anaphylactic shock. While it's easy enough for a person with a nut allergy to not buy them at the grocery store, the problem is that nuts can very easily be hidden in many food products, which is why it's so important for them to be disclosed on food labels. And why Hershey's took the important step in issuing this recent recall.

In fact, according to NBC, recalls due to foods accidentally packaged with potential allergens occurs more often than recalls for either listeria or salmonella. "Every three minutes, someone is being taken to the emergency room for a food allergy reaction," says John L. Lehr, chief executive of the advocacy group Food Allergy Research and Education.

Fortunately, in the case of Hershey's Chocolate Shell Topping, the FDA stated that there has not yet been any reports of severe reactions due to the mishap.