Grocery Store Bakery Recalls That Affected Millions

Who can resist the bakery section at the grocery store? That heavenly smell of fresh bread, the glistening pastries, and all those colorful cakes. It obviously holds a special place in our hearts — and stomachs — which is why we would never suspect danger lurking underneath all that deliciousness. But, unfortunately, baked goods face recalls just like any other product.

There are many reasons food can be recalled. Harmful bacteria like Salmonella and Listeria might survive baking and lead to food poisoning. Undeclared allergens can sneak their way into products, triggering serious reactions. And, while it's baffling, even physical hazards like metal or plastic sometimes end up in dough. When any of these issues are discovered, stores are forced to recall items, sometimes causing a ripple effect throughout the entire system. Employees rush to remove products from shelves, agencies issue alerts, and, if consumers don't discover the recall in time, they could face serious health consequences.

Grocery store recalls have affected some of our most beloved bakery items, from donuts and danishes to coffee cake and sourdough bread. We scoured online data to uncover the most significant recalls in grocery store history, revealing the surprising reasons these foods were deemed unsafe. So, before you fill your cart with tempting pastries and pies, let's dig into the details.

They say donuts are the perfect circle of happiness, but in January 2025, they became the center of a massive food scare. A whopping two million cases of assorted pastries were recalled due to potential Listeria contamination. The recall wasn't limited to just donuts, either — fritters, eclairs, cake rings, and coffee rolls were pulled from store shelves. FGF Brand, the company responsible for the recall, supplies products to companies including Dunkin' Donuts, ACE Bakery, Stonefire, and Simple Joys Bakery. You've likely seen these brands in your local grocery stores — and if you noticed a short supply in early 2025, now you know why.

The good news is that this recall was purely precautionary. While Listeria was discovered at one of FGF Brand's donut facilities, it wasn't detected in any finished pastry products or food contact surfaces. Rest assured, any donuts consumed around this time were safe. However, the company made the right call, considering that Listeria is no joke. In minor cases, Listeria can cause stomach upset, fever, nausea, and vomiting. But, if the bacteria spread beyond the intestines, they can evolve into a life-threatening invasive disease characterized by headaches, confusion, and convulsions.

It's hard to imagine anything worse than biting into a fresh sourdough sandwich only to discover an unexpected crunch of plastic. While this might sound alarming, it's relatively tame compared to some of the other shocking things people have found in fast food over the years. It's even believed that people consume a credit card's worth of microplastics each week without even realizing it. But, when you can see and feel larger plastic pieces, it becomes both off-putting and potentially dangerous. And, unfortunately, plastic contaminants in Izzio Artisan Bakery's products were serious enough to trigger a recall in July 2024, pulling thousands of products from store shelves.

The recall affected popular items including Izzio Everything Sourdough, the Aldi Mixed Sourdough loaf, and Izzio Everything Rolls — all products sold at Aldi stores. By the time the contamination was discovered, the product had already been shipped to seven retail stores and three distribution centers across seven states. In total, the recall involved a staggering 10,000 cases, containing dozens of products each. 

In August 2024, Too Good Gourmet, the manufacturing company responsible for Meijer's Dunking Cookies Chocolate Chip, accidentally forgot to include a crucial ingredient on the nutrition label: milk. We understand the subtle irony here. If you're buying dunking cookies, you'd likely be dunking them into ... milk. However, if you're consuming the cookies as is and have an adverse reaction to milk products, this unknown ingredient could pose a serious health risk.

Milk is one of the "Big 9" food allergens, which account for the majority of food allergies in the United States. It's also the most common allergy among infants and young kids, with 2.5% of under-three-year-olds being affected. Small children are also a prime cookie-eating demographic, making this recall even more crucial, especially since allergic reaction severity depends on the individual and can range from mild hives to anaphylaxis. Luckily, there were no reports of illness or customer complaints despite the 10-ounce containers of Meijer's Dunking Cookies Chocolate Chip being sold across several states.

FGF Brands appears several times on this list, and there's a simple reason why: it's massive. This company ships hundreds of thousands of baked goods daily to clients across the country. With that kind of volume, mistakes happen. Unfortunately, in June 2024, one of those mistakes involved walnuts. FGF discovered that some of their Aldi Bakeshop Chocolate Chip muffins contained undeclared walnuts, prompting them to recall nearly 12,000 cases of the 4-count muffins that had already reached Aldi stores nationwide.

This wasn't just about ingredient transparency — it was about safety. Walnuts are a tree nut, one of the nine major allergens that trigger the most serious reactions. While movies often depict dramatic scenes of people collapsing from nut allergies, real-life reactions are more varied. Depending on the individual, allergic reactions appear anywhere from minutes to hours after exposure. Some people may feel a slight tingling of the mouth, while others experience a serious drop in blood pressure. Fortunately, no one reported getting sick from these particular muffins. 

Even grocery store bakeries have "oops" moments. You know, like when you open a cake box expecting chocolate chips and discover peanut butter instead. Unfortunately, this exact scenario happened in September 2023 to David's Cookies, which supplies its Marketside cakes to Walmart stores nationwide. However, when the company mislabeled 960 peanut butter cakes as "Chocolate Chip Explosion cake,"  it wasn't just a surprise flavor — it was a surprise health threat. The problem? Peanuts were completely absent from the nutrition label, violating federal requirements for allergen disclosure.

For the 1-2% of Americans with peanut allergies, biting into what they thought was chocolate chip cake could have led to life-threatening anaphylactic shock. A celebratory dessert would have devolved into a medical emergency, which is why accurate food labeling isn't just about customer satisfaction, it can be a matter of life or death for some.

H-E-B's Meal Simple Chocolate Chunk Brownies managed to hide not one, but two undeclared allergens. The brownies themselves were perfectly fine, but someone slapped the wrong ingredient label on the back of the package, categorizing it as "Sopapilla Cheesecake" instead. Sopapilla cheesecake sounds absolutely delicious, with its sweet cheesecake filling, flaky crescent roll crust, and cinnamon sugar topping. However, it doesn't contain egg and soy — key ingredients in the chain's chocolate brownies.

This labeling error caused H-E-B to recall nearly a thousand pounds of brownies in January 2023. Though most shoppers would probably have noticed they were holding brownies instead of cheesecake, allergen-sensitive customers who rely heavily on ingredient lists could have faced serious health consequences as a result of the mix-up. And, although H-E-B is considered one of the most trusted grocery stores in America, this mishap serves as a reminder that even the most reliable chains still make mistakes occasionally.

Some recalls cause a dangerous domino effect, and this one is a textbook example. It started when food manufacturer Lyon's Magnus discovered its products may have been contaminated with nasty microbes. King's Hawaiian, which sources ingredients from Lyons Magnus, quickly issued a secondary recall of potentially affected items including Pretzel Slider Buns, Pretzel Hamburger Buns, and Pretzel Bites. However, the chain reaction didn't stop there. Albertsons had used these King's Hawaiian breads in 18 different store-prepared bakery items, forcing the chain to recall products across its entire network. This meant Safeway, Lucky, United, Andronico's, and many other retailers were scrambling to remove baked goods from store shelves.

The microbes found, Cronobacter sakazakii and Clostridium botulinum, aren't your run-of-the-mill food poisoning bugs, either. Cronobacter sakazakii might seem harmless since it exists naturally in the environment, but it's particularly deadly for children under two years old, who face a higher risk of infection. Clostridium botulinum is related to the bacteria used in Botox treatments. But when it shows up in food, it causes a very different type of paralysis — the kind that affects your nerves, potentially leading to impaired vision, impaired muscle movement, and even difficulty breathing.

Nothing ruins that warm, cozy baked good like biting into metal fragments. Sadly, that's exactly what customers faced when Kroger discovered the starch in its Country Oven baked goods was potentially contaminated with metal pieces. The contamination triggered a massive recall in 2021, impacting 19 baked goods, from cinnamon rolls and danishes to multiple cake flavors. Making matters worse, the recall affected stores across 29 of the 35 states where Kroger operates.

Unfortunately, metal contamination isn't a one-off problem — it happens more often than we realize. Publix recalled chicken and Aldi recalled shredded cheese due to metal fragments. It's easy to see why these recalls happen quickly since metal doesn't belong anywhere near food products. It can cause serious damage throughout the entire digestive tract. We're talking potential lacerations in your mouth or throat, not to mention internal injuries if fragments make it to your intestines.

Walmart has experienced several food recalls that affected millions — and the company's recurring problem with peanut labeling hasn't helped. In August 2021, the chain's Marketside Chocolate Candy Cookie Cake was recalled for a major issue: peanuts were a primary ingredient, yet they weren't anywhere to be found on the ingredient label. These cakes were sold in distinctive 12" by 12" clear-topped boxes across Walmart bakeries, and while it's obvious these cakes were oversized cookies, it's less obvious they contain peanuts. People would have no way of identifying this allergen until it was too late. As a result, this oversight forced employees to pull the product from shelves across 23 states.

For anyone with a peanut allergy casually browsing the bakery section, this mislabeling could have been life-threatening. Fortunately, no illnesses were reported, suggesting the issue was caught in time. The FDA reported that investigators deemed the incident "a temporary breakdown in the company processes," which essentially sounds like corporate speak for someone, somewhere, dropped the ball big time. Whether it was skipped quality control, human error, or a system glitch, the mistake had major repercussions.

Holiday cookie platters are supposed to bring you seasonal joy, not send you to the ER. Unfortunately, the latter scenario could've played out with Publix Holiday Cookie Platters in 2020. These 20-ounce trays contained a festive variety of cookies, some of which contained pecans. However, the ingredient label failed to mention these tree nuts entirely, demanding a major recall. Although you may not know anyone with a pecan allergy, tree nuts are a common allergen, and there's often cross-reactivity between allergens. As such, customers must be informed of any tree nut exposure.

The recall affected multiple states and was traced back to a packaging problem. Essentially, we're assuming someone simply forgot to include pecans on the ingredient list despite them being baked into the recipe. For families with nut allergies, one of these mislabeled platters could've resulted in the opposite of a sweet surprise. Ultimately, it was a holiday miracle that no illnesses were reported.

In July of 2019 — at the peak of barbecue season — Flower Foods had to recall multiple varieties of hamburger and hot dog buns (including whole wheat, regular, and butter buns) after discovering they potentially contained small pieces of hard plastic. However, we're not just talking about microplastics. These were big enough to pose a genuine choking hazard.

The recall was so widespread, it impacted millions of workers and consumers. These hamburger and hot dog buns were sold under brand names you'd recognize from any grocery trip. Think Clover Valley, Market Pantry, Nature's Own, and Great Value, among others. You could find these contaminated buns everywhere, from Walmart to your corner grocery store. And, when it comes to barbecue staples, buns aren't the only ingredient that has faced safety issues. America has seen major ground beef recalls along with hot dog recalls that impacted millions.

Swiss rolls, the nostalgic childhood snack, became the center of a Salmonella scare in 2018. After discovering that its whey powder supplier had used potentially contaminated ingredients, Flower Foods was forced to recall Swiss rolls sold under multiple brand names. The company refused to name which third-party company was responsible, leaving consumers in the dark about the exact cause. The recall affected major retailers including Food Lion, H-E-B, and Walmart, and the Swiss rolls were sold under recognizable brands like Market Square and Mrs. Freshley's.

Although it wasn't forthcoming about the details, we're happy Flower Foods issued the recall. Salmonella is a nasty bacteria that typically causes symptoms within one to three days of consumption. Think fever, diarrhea, nausea, and stomach cramps for several days. Although many people associate Salmonella with fresh foods like meat or produce, it's also been the source of some of the biggest egg recalls in history. And this incident is a reminder that even processed bakery snacks aren't immune to Salmonella's risks.

Those with a peanut allergy wouldn't want to get caught with their hand in this cookie jar. In March 2018, Chris's Cookies, the company that manufactures Trader Joe's store-brand cookies, accidentally put peanut butter chocolate chip cookies into bags labeled as regular chocolate chip cookies. As previously mentioned, this can cause a potentially life-threatening situation for customers with a nut allergy. As a result, what may have been a minor packaging error resulted in a serious recall affecting the entire northeastern region from Connecticut to Washington, DC.

The irony here is that the label already included a warning stating the product "may contain traces of peanuts," but peanuts weren't actually listed as an ingredient. Thanks to busy manufacturing facilities, many products contain this warning label, and it's often disregarded by consumers. For someone with a genuine allergy, the results could've been disastrous. Fortunately, no allergic reactions or illnesses were reported, and Trader Joe's quickly pulled affected products from shelves.

Anyone who has experienced a dental emergency knows the fear of biting down on a non-edible object. And when eating something as soft and moist as Publix's signature Apple Coffee Cake, you wouldn't expect to find anything sharp or painful — especially not metal. To avoid such a disaster, Publix issued a recall in 2016 when the company discovered its beloved coffee cake may have been contaminated with metal shavings.

The recall affected Publix bakery departments across the Southeast including stores in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina. "As part of our commitment to food safety, potentially impacted products have been removed from store shelves," explained Maria Brous, the company's media relations director, emphasizing that no illnesses or injuries had been reported (per Food Safety News). Customers who had already purchased coffee cakes were encouraged to return them for a full refund — a small consolation for what could've been a very painful breakfast.

So far, this comprehensive list of grocery store bakery recalls doesn't mention any reported illnesses or injuries. Unfortunately, we can't say the same for this final troubling incident. In December 2015, Kroger's Bakery Fresh Goodness Chocolate Brownies were recalled for containing undeclared walnuts. We've seen several unreported nuts in past recalls, but this particular recall became especially serious when one person reported an allergic reaction.

The severity of the situation prompted Kroger to mark this as a Class I recall, the most serious category (reserved for cases that could cause severe health consequences or even death). The 16-ounce tubs were immediately pulled from store shelves at Kroger, JayC, and Smith's nationwide. However, the precautionary measures didn't stop there. Kroger did its due diligence by attempting to contact customers who had purchased the brownies via register receipt messages and direct phone calls.