12 Best Grocery Store in Every State

9. Publix’s holiday cookie platter was distributed with pecans — despite not including them on the label

Pecans are the taste of the holidays, and they often appear in people’s cookies around that time of the year — causing a lot of annoyance to people with pecan allergies. So in 2020, customers who were allergic to pecans might have felt that they hit the jackpot when they found that Publix Bakery’s Holiday Cookie Platter didn’t contain any of the nuts. Had they bought them, they could have been in for a real shock, given that these cookies did contain pecans and were mislabeled, which caused Publix to put out a recall notice hastily.

This issue was caused by a breakdown during the product’s packaging procedures. This may have led to the wrong label ending up on the platters, which were made by George DeLallo Co., Inc. and supplied to Publix stores. Thankfully, individuals with pecan allergies didn’t get the chance to buy the platter before it was recalled, as nobody reported becoming sick from it. It could have been a dire situation for Publix, though.

10. Aldi sourdough was recalled after plastic may have been baked into it

The history of Aldi’s product recalls has been plagued by foreign objects entering its items. In 2024, this plague struck again when it was found that pieces of plastic might have made their way into Aldi’s bread. Its Aldi Mixed Sourdough Loaf, as well as two other bread products made by Izzio Artisan Bakery, LLC, had to be sought out by the retailer — and while the breadth of the recall was pretty small, with the products only ending up in seven different stores, there were a lot of items to track down.

Aldi had to find 9,500 cases of its mixed sourdough loaf; given that there were 12 loaves per case, it was a lot of bread to cover. In addition, it had to find over 1,000 cases of its other bread items. The recall was initiated in July, and by mid-August, it was still ongoing, underlining the amount of time it can take stores to cover the bases, even when affected products only hit a few stores.

11. Undeclared walnuts in Kroger’s brownies prompted a recall

Chocolate brownies often have walnuts, but that’s still being determined. When you buy a simple brownie from a store, you can expect it to be safe if it doesn’t have walnuts listed in its product name or on the label. However, that’s not always the case, as one customer discovered in 2015 when shopping at Kroger. The unfortunate shopper experienced a potential allergic reaction to walnuts after eating one of Kroger’s Bakery Fresh Brownies. After they reported it to the store, Kroger issued a recall notice for its brownie product.

It was found that walnuts should have been listed on the label for the brownies, presenting a risk for the customer involved and other customers who might have bought them. Somewhat annoyingly for Kroger, by the time the issue had been found, the brownies had already been shipped across quite a few states in the East, with stores everywhere from Ohio to Louisiana stocking them. Just goes to show, folks: You can only partially rely on stores to give you accurate info.

12. Publix’s apple coffee cake was recalled due to the risk of metal shavings in the cake itself

So call us old-fashioned, but when we bite into a delicious slice of cake, we prefer not to have to deal with a mouthful of metal. This became a real risk 2016 if you bought one specific cake from Publix. Its Apple Coffee Cake had to be recalled after it was found that metal shavings might have made their way into it. Publix announced with its recall that nobody had been injured by eating the cake, but it wasn’t a great look for the supermarket.

It’s not entirely clear how these metal shavings ended up in the cake itself, but it’s fair to assume that machinery malfunction could have been to blame. When the machinery used to process ingredients deteriorates, residue can result in the components used to make cakes and other baked goods. The silver lining for Publix was that the affected cakes only made it to a handful of states, but it still needed to become national news.