FDA to State Health Departments: We Need Your Help, With Lucky Charms

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it has received over 100 complaints about Lucky Charms cereal since the start of this year, but it has yet to issue a recall or warning to consumers.

The FDA is asking states for help investigating reports that Lucky Charms is causing diarrhea and vomiting.

According to the New York Post, New York, Michigan, Kansas, Arkansas, and possibly more states, are being asked to assist the federal agency in their investigation. All of the listed states’ Health Departments have been or are about to start interviewing residents who have reported issues related to the cereal.

The most common complaint is diarrhea, sometimes lasting for days. Vomiting and fevers have also been reported.

Since the Post’s first report on April 1, thousands of complaints have flooded into the social media safety site iwaspoisoned.com complaining about sickness after eating the cereal. While these complaints cannot be verified, there were at least 139 complaints before the Post’s report.

Some complaints on the site were posted after the Post’s report, but are about an incident that happened previously, indicating that some may have felt sick from eating Lucky Charms, but did not know where to report it until after reading the report.

“The weekend of March 19 and 20. Lucky Charms, family size box. My grandson was visiting over that weekend. He eats cereal most mornings and that weekend he ate Lucky Charms. I also had a bowl. Shortly after eating, I had to lie down as I felt very nauseated,” a post from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, published Tuesday reads. “Later, my grandson ran to the bathroom and said he had diarrhea and couldn't stop going.”

One victim told The Post that it was worse than when he had COVID-19.

General Mills, the manufacturer of Lucky Charms, said in a statement that they have heard the complaints but “have not found any evidence of consumer illness tied to our products.”

One customer, identified only as Karen from Arkansas in the Post’s recent report, says she complained to the company and only received a boilerplate response and two coupons for free cereal.

“I was irritated and I thought, ‘Honestly, if this is their response, they are not going to do anything,’” Karen told the Post.