‘Do not eat this cereal’: CDC links Honey Smacks, salmonella

The agency says at least 27 more people from 19 states have been added to the outbreak since it found salmonella in samples of Honey Smacks, which has been subject to a voluntary recall by Kelloggs since mid-June.

"Retailers can not legally offer the cereal for sale and consumers should not purchase Kellogg's Honey Smacks cereal", it wrote.

The number of people with salmonella linked to Kellogg's Honey Smacks cereal has grown to 100 across the United States, prompting the CDC to issue a blunt warning via tweet: "Do not eat this cereal". The most recent of the illnesses was reported to the CDC on July 2, 18 days after the first recall notice. People in 33 states have been sickened, and 30 of the 100 people who have fallen ill wound up in the hospital.

All Honey Smacks products that were on the market within the cereal's one-year shelf-life have been recalled.

If you see Honey Smacks being sold at a store, you are asked to call the FDA consumer complaint coordinator in your area. The agency claimed two exemptions: "disclosure could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings" and possible disclosure of "trade secret and confidential commercial information".

The cereal is the likely source of the salmonella outbreak, the CDC said.

Health officials said people get sick from Salmonella 12 to 72 hours after ingesting the germ, and experience diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps. Thirty people have been hospitalized in this outbreak.

According to the CDC, salmonella is responsible for about 1.2 million illnesses, 23,000 hospitalisations, and 450 deaths a year, the majority of which are sourced from food.