Hu Recalls Its Vanilla Crunch Dark Chocolate Bar For Undeclared Tree Nuts

Hu Kitchen is known for prioritizing ethical sourcing practices and making products with simple ingredients — as the brand says, it's "Hu as in human." The Hu brand's vanilla crunch dark chocolate bar claims to contain all organic cacao, unrefined coconut sugar, cocoa butter, puffed quinoa, vanilla bean, as well as sea salt — not a nut in sight. However, the FDA announced that Hu Products is recalling one lot code's worth (aka a production batch) of its chocolate bars for containing "undeclared tree nuts."

Although only one lot code is being recalled (products stamped with the code L2343C), the announcement states the bars were sold online and in stores nationwide in the U.S. If you're allergic to tree nuts, you'll want to pause on buying this specific product for the time being. The FDA says that "some packages may potentially contain hazelnut, cashew, and/or almond that were inadvertently added to the product during manufacturing." The announcement was sure to clarify that this is the only Hu product being recalled at this time, and as of publication, no one has reported an allergic reaction to the vanilla crunch bar from Hu Products.

This isn't the first time Hu Products has recalled one of its items, and not even the first time the company has done so for containing undeclared nuts. In March 2021, the company announced a nationwide recall of a batch of chocolate-covered hunks of sour goldenberries it was concerned might contain almonds. In this and the prior case, the recalls have been voluntary because Hu includes an allergy statement on its labels, which say they may contain almond, cashew, or hazelnut. The warning suggests that though the chocolate company's production equipment is also used to process tree nuts, "allergen cleans [are] made prior to production." 

In January 2021, two months before the first recall, Hu Master Holdings, the parent company of Hu Products, was acquired by Mondelēz, the international snack brand that produces Oreo, Sour Patch Kids, and Trident, among other products.