What You Need To Know About The Pecan Chocolate Egg Recall

Not so fast: Before you eat that Elmer's pecan chocolate egg as an early Easter treat, you need to check to see if it's part of a recent recall of the product. Affected treats were distributed in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas and should not be consumed, per Food Safety News. More than 370,000 pieces of Elmer's Candy Corp. eggs are part of this recall, including the company's single-serving 1-ounce eggs and those in six-packs and 24-packs. The affected lot number is 2930 with a best-by date of July 11, 2022. Look out for UPC 41761-75035, 41761-75021, 41761-75034.

The most common reasons for recalls include things like unlabeled allergens or contamination by some sort of nasty bacteria, such as salmonella. The third major cause is the one that's relevant in this case: foreign objects in the product. FoodSafety.gov offers examples like glass and metal, but in the case of these Elmer's pecan chocolate eggs, the offending object is pecan tree bark. Well, at least they know where it came from! While pecans themselves are highly nutritious, the bark from their trees may not be so pleasant to digest. No illnesses related to the product have been reported at this time.

Food recalls happen all the time, so it's important to know what to do when you have an affected product. If you or someone you know has one or more of the recalled Elmer's candies, you sadly won't be able to use them for our favorite chocolate egg hacks for Easter. However, you can take one of two other steps. First, you can throw the product away. Or, take it back to the store you bought it from for a full refund, per advice from FoodSafety.gov.

If the threat of food recalls keeps you up at night, there are a couple of ways to stay informed. Either visit the Food Safety and Inspection Service website on the regular, or download the USDA's FoodKeeper app. This tool will send notifications as often as you want (daily, weekly, etc.) about the latest food recalls. Plus, it also includes helpful information, like how long certain foods can be kept in the refrigerator; safe cooking tips for seafood, poultry, and meat; and information about preventing foodborne illness. It won't be able to keep pecan tree bark from ending up in your chocolate, but it's still pretty handy.