FDA Recalls Popular Coffee Grounds in 15 US States Due to One Major Blunder in Their Labels
A sip of the morning coffee always jolts the brain into a flurry of dope, happy chemicals. But what if you drink a regular cup only to find that these dopey chemicals are way too much for your brain to handle? This is exactly the scene that might unfold in many American households, because, somewhere, some employees in a retailer’s manufacturing department printed incorrect labels on the golden brown packs of Our Family coffee. For this reason, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) initiated a product recall for some of its coffee products on March 13.
Our Family advertises its coffee as a “mind-waking spirit-shaking” beverage crafted from fresh coffee beans handpicked from the fertile soils of the mountains and roasted to perfection for an unforgettable flavour. But lately, one of their products called “Our Family Traverse City Cherry artificially flavored decaf light roast ground coffee” has been causing thousands of coffee lovers to go into a tizzy over a labelling blunder carried out mistakenly by one of their suppliers. Once the brand was informed of this “mislabeling,” its parent company, SpartanNash, issued a voluntary recall for 12-ounce bags of this coffee product.
“Reason for recall - Mislabeling. A portion of the production of Our Family Traverse City Ground Coffee was mislabeled as decaffeinated,” FDA noted in the recall report. This product was manufactured by Massimo Zanetti Beverages. Although decaffeinated coffee has nearly the same effects as caffeinated coffee, it is not entirely free from caffeine. Therefore, those whose bodies are not adapted to consuming a high dose of caffeine might experience unsettling effects after drinking this. According to the Cleveland Clinic, everyone’s body has its own tolerance to caffeine. Most adults can safely consume 400 milligrams (two or three 12-ounce cups of coffee) of caffeine per day.
But when consumed above one’s tolerance level, the caffeine can result in symptoms like increased heart rate, palpitations, headache, anxiety, jitteriness, agitation, trouble sleeping, nausea, vomiting, muscle twitching, or even seizures. Decaf coffee, on the other hand, is just like regular coffee, except that most of its caffeine has been stripped away from the beans, explains Healthline. Companies usually chuck out this caffeine using charcoal filters in a process called “Swiss water process.” But since the recalled coffee from Our Family was wrongly assigned the label “decaffeinated,” a consumer not used to too much caffeine could have adverse effects from drinking it.
In an interview with Good Housekeeping, a SpartanNash spokesperson said, “Our top priority is the safety of our consumers,” and added, “All recalled product was already removed from store shelves and destroyed prior to the FDA’s classification of the recall earlier this week.” Our Family, a company situated in Suffolk, Virginia, United States, issued the recall for 692 cases, each containing six 12-ounce bags, totalling 4,152 packages. According to the FDA, the product has the UPC "0 70253 11080 1" printed on it. The "best before" date marker reads the date of August 3, 2025. The product has been recalled in 15 states, including Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
The company also clarified that none of its other products have been affected by mislabeling or this recall. In a statement to NBC 10 Philadelphia, a spokesperson gave an apology and ensured that their products are safe to be consumed, and this one recall shouldn’t be generalized to all the products. "We are committed to your health and safety, and we follow best practices to ensure the quality and safety of the products we sell. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused," the company said.