Lucky Charms Cereal: Consumers complain of vomiting and diarrhea

Lucky Charms is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by the General Mills food company since 1964.

The cereal consists of toasted oat pieces and multi-colored marshmallow shapes (or marshmallow bits) and its label features a leprechaun mascot, Lucky, animated in commercials.

Lucky Charms is the first cereal to include marshmallows in the recipe.

These pieces are called “marshmallow bits”, or “marbits”, due to their small size. Marbits were invented by Edward S. Olney and Howard S. Thurmon (U.S. patent number 3,607,309, filed November 1, 1968, and assigned September 9, 1971, for “preparation of marshmallow with milk solids”),  with the patent grant now assigned to Kraftco Corporation.

However, during the past several days, hundreds of people have complained about stomach aches, vomiting and diarrhea after eating Lucky Charms, one of General Mills’ most popular cereals.

At least 139 consumers across the country reported they vomited and had diarrhea after eating a bowl of the cereal that’s marketed to kids, according to iwaspoisoned.com, a platform that tracks food-borne illnesses.

As at the time of the posting of this article, there have been no official releases from General Mills, the Food and Drug Administration or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the complaints.