Check the spice shelf before the holiday baking starts. SLR Food Distribution Inc. of Hicksville, New York, is voluntarily recalling Wise Wife Brand Ground Cinnamon because it may contain elevated levels of lead, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on October 29, 2026. No illnesses have been reported to date, the FDA said, but the jar was sold in 14 states over more than nine months, which means it could be sitting in a large number of kitchen cabinets right now.

Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Exactly which jar is recalled

The recall covers one specific product: Wise Wife Brand Ground Cinnamon in a 110-gram (3.88-ounce) clear plastic container with a black screw-top cap. The UPC on the back label is 0688474302754, and the Best Before date is 4/25/2027. If a jar in your home matches that size, that UPC and that date, it is the recalled product. Other Wise Wife products are not included in the October 29 FDA notice.

Where it was sold, and when

The cinnamon was distributed to retail stores and grocery stores in Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin between September 8, 2025, and June 28, 2026. The FDA notice does not name individual stores, so the jar itself — size, cap, UPC and date — is the reliable way to check, as Taste of Home noted in its coverage of the recall.

The problem was found through routine testing, not through illness reports. A sample collected and analyzed by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station revealed elevated levels of lead in the product, and the distributor then initiated the voluntary recall. The FDA announcement does not disclose the exact concentration of lead found or how the contamination occurred.

Why lead in a spice is taken so seriously

Lead is a toxic metal, and health authorities treat long-term, low-level exposure as a serious risk, especially for children. The FDA's recall language warns that exposure to enough lead over weeks to months can permanently damage the central nervous system and lead to learning disorders and developmental problems. That is why a spice used in small amounts, often in food baked for children and eaten across the holiday season, triggers a recall even when no one has reported getting sick.

Ground cinnamon has been under a microscope since 2024, when the FDA issued a public health alert on lead in ground cinnamon that now lists more than a dozen brands, according to Taste of Home. Imported spices can pick up lead from soil, water, processing equipment or drying and storage conditions, and because cinnamon is a high-value spice sold ground and blended, testing at the border and in state laboratories has become the main line of defence for shoppers.

This distributor has been here before

This is not SLR Food Distribution's first cinnamon recall. In September 2025 the company recalled a different Wise Wife cinnamon product — 1.76-ounce jars distributed across seven states — after FDA testing found the same problem: elevated lead. That earlier recall has since wrapped up. The new recall involves a larger jar, a longer distribution window of more than nine months, and twice as many states, which is why consumer coverage by USA Today, Reader's Digest, Parade and other outlets picked the October 29 announcement up again as seasonal baking gets underway.

What happens next

The company said it is notifying its customers to stop distributing and selling the product and to remove it from store shelves, and the recall is being conducted with the knowledge of the FDA. Shoppers who bought ground cinnamon in any of the 14 states during the distribution window should check the jar before using it in holiday cooking. Awaaz Punjab will update this story if the FDA expands the recall, names stores, or reports any illnesses.

For Punjabi and other South Asian households in the United States, ground cinnamon is a daily kitchen staple — in tea, rice dishes and sweets — not only a holiday baking ingredient. That makes the two-minute pantry check described above worth doing even if the jar was bought months ago: match the size, the black cap, the UPC and the Best Before date, and set the jar aside if all four match.