The grocery store bakery section should be a place of joy, right? Cookies. Cakes. Brownies.
It's the place we drift to when we're in need of a pick-me-up — and it's the last place we want to have issues with our food. Unfortunately, though, grocery store bakery sections can be much riskier than you might think, and a surprisingly high number of items stocking these shelves over the years have had to be recalled by the very people who made them. What should be delightfully delicious food items have instead been found time and time again to be substandard, contaminated, or even harmful.
By their very nature, baked goods are processed items, and that processing leaves them highly susceptible to being contaminated. Bakery items may contain spoiled ingredients or be vehicles for foodborne illnesses from Salmonella, Listeria, or Bacillus cereus bacteria. The processing they undergo also means that they're composed of ingredients coming from many different sources, which heightens the risk of contamination from foreign material or inadvertent allergens making it into the food itself.
As baked goods are often made with or alongside foods that have nuts, they can present an even bigger allergen risk than other parts of the grocery store. Once you take a look at these grocery store bakery recalls, you'll be thinking twice about grabbing those sugary treats. 1.
Walmart had to recall its peanut butter chocolate cake after peanuts weren't listed as an allergen When it comes to some reca.