Major Gummy Vitamin Recall: Are These in Your Cabinet?

Five major gummy vitamin labels are being recalled because they may contain metal.

The recall that was issued just a few days ago includes multivitamins, fiber supplements, and melatonin, and consumers are urged to check their cabinets immediately -- some may contain "metallic mesh material" that could lead to serious digestive tract damage.

Vitafusion gummy recallVitafusion

Ewing, New Jersey-based vitamin manufacturer, Church & Dwight Co., Inc. initiated a fairly massive recall on their Vitafusion gummy vitamins and supplements last week after reports of a "metallic mesh material" surfaced. According to a Vitafusion company announcement shared by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the voluntary recall was issued after two customers independently reporting pieces of metal found in their gummy products.

"In some severe cases, ingesting a metallic material could lead to damage of the digestive tract," the annoucement explains.

The Vitafusion recall included five of their most popular types of vitamins and supplements:

• Fiber Well, 90-count and 220-count
• SleepWell, 250-count
• MultiVites, 150-count
• Melatonin, 44-count and 140-count
• Kids Melatonin, 50-count

It's important to note the recall only pertains to very specific batches that were manufactured between October 29 and November 3, 2020, and distributed to retail and online sellers between November 13, 2020, through April 9, 2021.

"Gummy vitamins come in a variety of flavors and colors and they’re tasty, portable, convenient, they’re great for travel and you don’t need water to take them," explains Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN, creator of BetterThanDieting.com, author, and healthy-living Instagram personality. "They’re particularly useful for those who have a hard time swallowing pills. People have gotten used to the convenience of gummies, so a recall could mean that they would have to go back to taking pill-type supplements which they may not have been consistently consuming."

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Bonnie suggests looking for gummy vitamin brands with the, "USP Seal (USP stands for U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention) on the label to help assure consumers of the quality of the product," but if your medicine cabinet does, indeed, turn up some of the impacted Vitafusion labels, not to panic. You can easily check the FDA’s full list of recalled products, including up to date images of the products in question, expiration dates, and the specific UPC and Lot Code numbers.

To simplify matters even more, you can also enter the UPC and Lot Codes of a Vitafusion product on the Dwight & Church site to check if it is part of the recall. Dwight & Church says they haven't received any customer reports of illness of injury from the gummy vitamins, which seems like great news for those caught in the recall crosshairs.

Gummy vitaminsBrooke Larke

When it comes to consumer confidence in supplements, Taub-Dix stresses the importance of a well-rounded diet and supplements being used as just that -- supplementation. "I always believed in food first before supplements; you can’t replace the synergy of nutrients that’s in a tomato, for example, including fiber, vitamin C, lycopene and other valuable antioxidants and phytonutrients," says Bonnie. "But in some cases, as in vitamin D, we may not be able to get enough in our diets and supplements may need to be relied upon, especially when we have particular medical needs or deficiencies. That’s why they’re called supplements — they supplement the foods you eat to help you fully meet your needs… they don’t replace them."

If you purchased any of Vitafusion's recalled products, the FDA and brand urge you to stop taking them immediately and call the company’s consumer affairs team first to receive a full refund and then dispose of the product.

Are you a fan of gummy vitamins and supplements? Does this recall impact you or change your shopping habits? We'd love to hear your feedback in the comments section below.