Nestle announced a recall of its Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Chip ice cream on Friday after forgetting to include "peanut" on its label.
About 10,000 packages of the chocolate peanut butter ice cream were covered in the recall with a UPC of 74570-08400 distributed on the U.S. East Coast including Delaware, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. The product was manufactured on May 13, 2014. Products distributed in Canada were not included in the recall.
The company found out about the error after a customer complained about it, Reuters reported.
"People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to peanuts may run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consumer this product," the company said, quoted by Reuters.
Nestle worked with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as well as the Food Allergy Research & Education in investigating the cause of the mislabelling, as well as the recall announcement.
Nestle cautioned users who have peanut allergy not to consume the product and call 800-993-8924 or visit the Haagen-Dazs website.
Nestle is not the first to have overlooked its label related to peanuts. In 2012, Unilever of Englewood Cliffs, N.J. announced a nationwide recall of its Chocolate Nougat Crunch for missing out the peanut allergen statement on the label on pint containers. On a positive note, no illnesses were reported prior and after the announcement.
Peanut allergy affects 1.3 percent of the U.S. population and is common especially on children. It could cause severe symptoms such as gastrointestinal, skin and respiratory symptoms than other food allergies. It could also be fatal for some as it could cause difficulty in breathing and heart failure. So far, medical experts have not discovered any cure for this type of allergy.
