What You Need To Know About The Chocolate Espresso Bean Recall

Espresso lovers with a sweet tooth and a peanut allergy, this scary food recall alert is for you. On March 10, 2022, the FDA announced that Albanese Confectionery Group, Inc., known for its gummy bears at Costco, is voluntarily recalling 9 oz. tubs of its Dark Chocolate Espresso Beans (via FDA). Products containing peanuts, a common allergen, are required to have a label disclosing that they include peanuts. Albanese's Dark Chocolate Espresso Beans don't usually contain peanuts, but thanks to a packaging snafu, the company's tubs of Dark Chocolate Espresso Beans actually contain Dark Chocolate Panned Peanuts.

The recall concerns Dark Chocolate Espresso Beans sold after December 27, 2021, so if you got some in your stocking as a Christmas treat, you don't need to worry. But if you got yours after December 27 and you live in one of the 15 states included in the recall — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin — then you might actually possess a tub of peanuts, not espresso beans.

There are a few steps you can take if you wound up with a tub of the recalled Dark Chocolate Espresso Beans that are actually peanuts. The Albanese brand recommends in their recall notice that customers who have the recalled product destroy it, or return it to the store where it was purchased for a refund.

It might be tempting to just go ahead and eat the chocolate-covered peanuts if you don't have a peanut allergy, but the official recommendation is still to destroy or return the product (via Food Safety). If you do decide to keep it, make sure you create your own allergen warning on the package, so no one with a peanut allergy mistakenly goes in for a chocolate-covered espresso bean only to wind up having a life-threatening allergic reaction. That imagined scenario makes the reasons for the recall, and the recommendation to dispose of the product, seem pretty sound.