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On 5 May 2016, the web site Snack Safely published an article reporting that Kellogg's was adding traces of peanut flour to all of its products: While it is true that Kellogg's has recently added peanut flour to some its products, the article included some misleading information. The Snack Safely article used Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Fruit Crunch bars as evidence that the company was adding peanut flour to additional products, but those products are no longer available, and already contained peanut flour when they were introduced in 2012. Kellogg's said in a statement that the information from Snack Safely is inaccurate: There have been changes to some products from the company. However, the insinuation that it was done in secrecy and that Kellogg's has not commented on the ingredients in its products is misleading. At least two statements (one regarding the Austin Cracker line and one regarding Keebler) explained the ingredient updates, and subsequent label adjustments, in April 2016: While Snack Safely also accused Kellogg's of adding peanut flour to its products in order to avoid the complications of complying with the Food Safety Modernization Act, they provided no evidence to back up that assertion: The main critique of the article published by Snack Safely (and the accompanying petition) is that Kellogg's did not do a good job of alerting the public about the change. While that is a matter of debate, the company does say that parents should always check the packaging, as the ingredients list occasionally goes through changes: While it is true that Kellogg's added peanut flour to some of its products in 2016, there's no evidence that the decision to do so was to avoid the complications of complying with the Food Safety Modernization Act. After all, Kellogg's has announced dozens of ingredient changes over the years. Further, the company also said that it will be releasing an Austin Cracker flavor that does not contain peanut flour this September: Given the prevalence of peanut and other nut allergies and the strictness of the Food and Drug Administration (not to mention the high-profile public relations nightmare that would ensue after a spate of allergy-related illnesses or deaths) it seems extraordinarily unlikely that any company would alter recipes for popular foods in secret to introduce ingredients that would have a potentially devastating effect on its consumers. On 11 May 2016, Snack Safely published the following retraction: Kellogg's dispelled some of the rumors about its recent decision to add peanut flour to a few select products in an article published on the company's Open For Breakfast web site:
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