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Easter Egg Cookies Recalled For Containing Egg

by Alicia Lu

These Easter egg cookies may have been a little too life-like. On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that foods company Silver Lake had recalled its Easter Egg Cookies for containing actual egg, an allergen that the company failed to include on its ingredients label. These cookies could pose life-threatening allergy risks for those who are severely allergic to eggs, and the FDA has advised anyone with such allergies who has purchased these cookies to dispose of them.

According to the FDA, the recalled Silver Lake brand Easter Egg Cookies were 8-oz. packages printed with the UPC code of 0 37695 49817 1. They were sold to grocery stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Georgia, Illinois, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Indiana.

The cookies, which resemble blue Easter eggs with sprinkle stripes, are perfectly safe to eat for those who are not allergic to eggs. However, for those who are, which includes 2 percent of children in America, symptoms can range from the mild, like hives or a rash, to the severe, like anaphylaxis, which causes shortness of breath and sends the body into shock. If untreated, the affected could potentially die.

If you're not sure if you or your children have an egg allergy, look out for symptoms such as swelling, hives, rashes, wheezing, watery eyes, stomach pains, and nausea.

Luckily, there have been no reported illnesses linked to the Silver Lake recall so far.

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Easter usually conjures images of happy children enjoying baskets full of pastel-colored sweets, but once in a while an innocent-seeming treat threatens to ruin the fun. The Silver Lake Easter Egg Cookies are far from the first Easter product to have been recalled for safety issues. I mean, take a look at past items that almost ruined Easter.

Easter Bread

Last year, Wegmans grocery chain voluntarily recalled nearly 30,000 packages of its Easter Bread because it didn't list egg on its label. The braided loaf with white frosting drizzling was recalled when a baker noticed the allergen exclusion. The product had been sold at 83 Wegmans locations on the east coast, but nobody reported any incidents.

Easter Bunny Baskets

Also in 2014, there was another item recalled that wasn't a consumable product, but the safety threat was consumption. Last May, more than 24,000 Nantucket Distributing Co. Easter baskets were recalled because detachable beads posed choking hazards. The innocent-looking baskets included a model that featured a small bunny face with beads for eyes and another that featured a flower attachment with decorative beads. Fortunately, no one reported any choking incidents related to this recall.

Chocolate Easter Eggs

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Yet another recall in 2014 involved what is arguably everyone's favorite Easter treat: chocolate Easter eggs. Australian supermarket chain Coles recalled its Milk Chocolate Hollow Easter Eggs and its Milk Chocolate Easter Bag after a boy had an allergic reaction to the product's traces of tree nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, pistachios, etc.), which Coles had failed to include in its labeling. The boy experienced wheezing, hives, and a tingling throat, but eventually recovered.

Marshmallow Eggs

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In 2013, Zachary Confections of Indiana voluntarily recalled its Chocolate-Covered Marshmallow Eggs after a sample revealed a possible Salmonella contamination. No illnesses were reported from that recall either.

Images: Brad Clinesmith/Flickr, Andrew McDowell/Flickr, Getty Images (3)