Slim Fast And Bacterial Contamination

December 22, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 

If you’ve been dieting with the Slim Fast plan and drink one or two canned drinks per day you should probably momentarily discontinue use or change to another product. All canned Slim Fast drinks have voluntarily been recalled by the company because of reservations over bacterial contamination, which is connected with diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. Currently there are about 10 million products in the market.

The beverages might be infected with the microorganism Bacillus cereus. So far the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t reported any deaths or injuries linked to the recall but an unknown amount of people have gotten sick between six and fifteen hours after consumption. Even though they recovered within 24 hours.

Contamination in all likelihood happened during the manufacturing process. The pathogen was discovered and then the FDA was informed. The products are located nationwide and all Slim Fast drinks should be disposed of. They come in packages of either four, six, or 12 and in steel 11 ounce cans. But some cans are also sold individually.

All drinks have been recalled. It doesn’t matter what the flavor, date, lot code or UPC number is just return them and get your money back. But if you’re worried about messing up the Slim Fast plan you don’t have too. All other products like the powdered shakes, meal bars or snack bars are okay.

The company is working on determining where the issue took place and what caused the contamination. Production has closed until the problem is taken care of. All customers need to dispose of their drinks. If not they take the chance of being ill for 24 hours with very disagreeable symptoms.

In the U.S. everyone relies greatly on the items produced in factories. But the fact is that there’s a very thin chance of getting sick from the food we buy, but we really don’t know what is going on when our food is being produced. We just have to put our trust and faith in the system and the FDA and hope that we’ll come out okay.

The trouble is that in industrial countries there are producers and consumers. In the past everyone grew their own food and would buy the few supplies that they considered necessary. And now there are very few people that raise enough food to provide for their own needs. Most of us don’t have the time or space to grow one so we rely entirely on others to supply our food and we just buy it at the grocery store.

So the fact that we have little to do with raising our own food makes us completely reliant on farmers and manufacturers. Especially if we’re on a specific diet like Slim Fast because then you only eat one or two meals a day and the remaining meals end up being a shake.

Diets enhance our dependability on products especially if we’re loyal to a certain brand. Loyalty to a brand takes a lot of money out of our pockets and puts it into theirs but it makes us question that when there’s a recall like this. But after this recall and the close inspections the plant will go through, these products will probably be the safest because they’ve really inspected and fixed their plant in order to avoid future problems.
About the Author

Diane Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Utah. She is interested in adult education and likes to write about the news, politics, college degrees, online schooling, and the college experience.

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