Razor Sharp Splinters Found In Quaker Chewy Bars In Bismarck

Quaker Chewy granola bars have been removed from grocery stores around Bismarck Mandan due to fears over salmonella risk.

This is a country-wide recall.  You can read all about that here.

Salmonella isn't the only problem with these bars.  Read about my experience with them right here in Bismarck Mandan below.

I'm not the type to complain when I'm eating food.

I'm pretty sure I've never sent anything back before at a restaurant.  I eat whatever is on my plate for the most part.  However, I have to draw the line with pieces of wood in my breakfast bars.

I'm pretty much a creature of habit.

Every morning on my commute to work from Lincoln to Mandan, I eat a couple of Quaker Chewy granola bars.  We even buy them in bulk from Sam's Club because my son likes them as well.

I was on my second bar when all of a sudden I felt two sharp objects go right into my gum.  It's pitch dark out and I'm driving, so there wasn't much I could do.  I tried to remove them with my finger with no luck.

When I finally got to work, I went right to a mirror to assess the situation.  One thing is for sure, my finger wasn't going to do the trick.  I needed a tweezer.  At this time I'm starting to wonder what the hell I had bitten into?  I was starting to think I was going to have to go to the dentist to get these little needles out of my gums.

No tweezer, no problem.

Then I stumbled across a paperclip and went to work.  Certainly not the most sanitary way to go, but I wasn't going to go any longer in my current situation.  I dug and dug and it wasn't long before I was dripping blood all over the sink, but the paperclip did its job.

Here's what I found in my gums.  Two little splitters that seemed like either a piece of wood or maybe even straw?

I immediately Googled to see if anybody else had had this happen to them?  As it turned out, I'm not alone.  One article says the splinter-like objects are actually pieces of the outer shell of the grains called "hulls".   In the article from ABC Action News, Quaker responded to the complaint by saying, "Although the hull does not have the desired texture, it's safe to eat."

Safe?  Okay, you're not going to die, but having to remove these sharp objects is not how you want to start your day.  I for one will never eat Quaker Chewy granola bars again.  Here's a video from ABC Action News from 2018 on the subject.  You would think 4 years later the company would have this figured out by now?

Chef Kendra Nguyen's YouTube page can be found here.