12 Best Grocery Store in Every State

3. Publix was selling custard pie — but inside the packaging was another pie entirely

Regarding grocery store bakery recalls, those caused by mislabeling are surprisingly common — and in 2023, it was Publix’s turn to own up to a labelling error. The supermarket chain had to issue a recall for batches of its Private Label Egg Custard Pie because it may not have contained custard pie. Instead, Publix discovered that a coconut pie may have made it into the packaging instead. Yikes.

This goes beyond a mere issue of the cake tasting different. Consuming this erroneous pie may have been concerning to folks with coconut allergies. While this specific allergy only affects approximately 1 in 260 Americans, according to research published by the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, its ability to cause a severe and dangerous reaction in those with it is vital. This mistake appears to have been prompted by mere manufacturer error instead of some other suspicious reason, but that doesn’t mean that Publix needed to take it any less seriously. Its recall was made even more turbulent by the fact that these pies may have been sold at any point throughout a month-long period, although thankfully, nobody had reported illness at the time the recall was announced.

4. One of Aldi’s bread products had to be recalled due to potentially containing flexible wire

Bread is the perfect vehicle for endless toppings, spreads, or lunch meats. Do you know what it shouldn’t be a vehicle for? Wire. We wish that someone had told Aldi that in 2013 (although we’re sure the company knew it already, to be honest) when it had to put a recall out for L’oven Fresh 12 Grain Bread Wide Pan. Unfortunately, Aldi discovered that some of its products could have been contaminated with flexible wire, which may have come from a deteriorated piece of machinery in one of its flour mills. This, of course, led to a significant recall for Aldi.

It’s only fair to note that this wasn’t one of Aldi’s mills, and the flour came from Bimbo Bakeries USA, a third-party supplier. However, that doesn’t make things any less severe, as this wire could have presented a choking hazard for adults and children. The saving grace for Aldi was that its bread product appears to have only been on shelves for a short window, limiting its potential for harm.

5. Trader Joe’s recalled some of its cookies — because there may have been rocks in them

If you were shopping at Trader Joe’s in 2023, you might remember a recall that may cause you to think twice about biting into cookies in the future. The supermarket chain had to recall two of its cookie products, Dark Chocolate Chunk and Almond Cookies and Almond Windmill Cookies after it was found that they might have contained rocks. The retailer was pretty cagey about how said rocks may have ended up in their cookies in the first place and instead told the world that it was a supplier issue.

The wild thing about this recall is that when it comes to the dark chocolate chunk cookies in question, it’s entirely reasonable that folks may have confused these rocks for just another chocolate chip — which could have resulted in broken teeth or potential choking. Thankfully, the affected cookies were only sold over four days, limiting the amount that Trader Joe’s had to track down. Somewhat less thankfully, this recall came around the same time the retailer was battling with a few other high-profile recalls, asking customers to return products that may have contained metal and insects. It was a bad look for a company that prides itself on its food’s quality and wholesomeness.

6. Aldi’s chocolate chip muffins didn’t declare walnuts on their label

While many grocery store bakery recalls are contained, some can concern enormous amounts of food. Such was the case in 2024 when Aldi had to spearhead a recall of almost 12,000 cases of muffins made by FGF Brands Inc. for its stores. Unfortunately, this was yet another case of packaging and mislabeling. It was found that its Chocolate Chip Muffin product, which had walnuts in it, was being distributed without its packaging flagging that walnuts were one of the ingredients.

This presented a big issue for the retailer because tree nut allergic responses can be just as dangerous as those caused by peanuts or other allergens. It was revealed that the source of the mislabeling was due to FGF Brands Inc.’s production process temporarily shutting down, which may have led to things being rebooted with the wrong packaging in place. Nonetheless, the companies took swift action, pausing production until the issue was resolved and tracking down the affected muffins. No illnesses were reported due to eating these muffins, which we’re sure was a small comfort to Aldi.

7. A cookie cake sold at Walmart may have contained undeclared peanuts

Printing accurate allergen information is vital for customer safety, regardless of whether they might assume a product has a particular ingredient or not. Walmart reaffirmed this in 2021 with a dangerous food recall for one of its items. Walmart’s Marketside Chocolate Candy Cookie Cake, produced for the retailer by Jimmy’s Cookies LLC, had to be recalled when it was discovered that it was missing peanuts from its allergen information, despite the product containing them.

There are plenty of reasons why people might not have guessed it contained peanuts or could have missed the M&M sticker on the package — and as we trust our supermarkets to give us this information readily to avoid harm, this was a significant error on Walmart’s part. Stores in almost two dozen states were affected by the recall, which seems to have been caused by a temporary breakdown in one of Jimmy’s Cookies’ production facilities.

8. H-E-B’s brownies were mislabeled and didn’t include vital allergen information

Soy and eggs are two of the main allergens and are prevalent allergenic triggers for children. Therefore, retailers must list them as products that could appeal to kids, especially those where it could be more apparent that they’ll contain them. In 2023, H-E-B found this out the hard way when it was discovered that its Meal Simple Chocolate Chunk Brownie was missing both soy and eggs from its ingredients and allergen list. The store had to take part in a recall of the product, produced by Ameripack Foods LLC, seeking out almost 1,000 pounds of brownies from its stores bought by customers.

The reason for the omission of these allergens was simple: H-E-B was putting the wrong label on the back of the brownies. Instead, the package had been branded with the label for the store’s Sopapilla Cheesecake, which didn’t contain either eggs or soy. As many people don’t spend minutes studying each ingredient when they buy items and instead look for the allergens on the label, this mistake was easy to miss. Luckily, though, no illnesses were reported in association with this recall.