Gerber Recalls Baby Biscuits Over Potential Plastic and Paper Contamination

Gerber is recalling several lots of its arrowroot biscuits due to potential contamination with fragments of soft plastic and paper, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday.

The recall affects 5.5-ounce packages of Gerber Arrowroot Biscuits with "Best By" dates ranging from Oct. 16, 2026, to Dec. 16, 2026. The FDA advised consumers to check for a 10-digit lot code on the back of the packaging to identify affected products.

No illnesses or injuries have been reported in connection with the recall, which Gerber initiated voluntarily.

The company stated the contamination risk originated from an arrowroot flour supplier that had previously launched its own recall. Gerber has since terminated its partnership with that supplier.

Parents and caregivers are urged not to feed the recalled biscuits to children. Customers should return the products to the place of purchase for a full refund.

"The quality and safety of our products remain our highest priority," Gerber said in a statement, apologizing for the inconvenience.

The recent Gerber recall underscores systemic vulnerabilities within the United States’ intricate food supply chain, highlighting a risk profile that transcends even the most established household names. Crucially, the point of failure originated not within Gerber’s own manufacturing facilities but with a third-party ingredient supplier—a perennial challenge in modern, decentralized production. For a brand that maintains a dominant position in the U.S. infant nutrition market, any safety breach threatens to erode decades of carefully curated brand equity and consumer trust.

The fallout carries particular weight for Vietnamese consumers, both domestically and within the diaspora. In Vietnam, Gerber has long been regarded as a gold standard for food safety, widely accessed through a combination of official retail partners and a pervasive "grey market" of informal, hand-carried imports.

It is these informal channels that present the most acute risk. Consumers purchasing through unauthorized vendors operate outside the reach of formal FDA recall notifications and lack access to standard restitution or refund mechanisms. Beyond the immediate health concerns, this incident challenges the prevailing consumer sentiment that Western imports are inherently infallible. Ultimately, the crisis emphasizes an urgent need for more robust regulatory literacy and a shift toward official distribution channels to ensure accountability in the event of a systemic failure.

This recall is hitting the Vietnamese-American community particularly hard, as we make up a significant segment of the market for baby products in the U.S. Parents are now faced with the urgent task of inspecting their purchases, finding safe alternatives, and navigating the return process.

Beyond domestic concerns, the recall poses a specific challenge for those who frequently send "hàng xách tay" (hand-carried goods) to Vietnam. It is common practice for many in the community to include items like baby formula, cereal, and Gerber snacks in care packages or as part of their remittances to relatives back home. This has sparked an urgent wave of international outreach as families scramble to notify their loved ones in Vietnam to check their supplies and immediately stop using affected batches, causing significant anxiety and disruption across the diaspora.