If you’ve bought a Spring & Mulberry chocolate bar anytime in the last nine months, stop what you’re doing and go check your pantry. As of May 8, 2026, every single flavor the company makes is now part of a nationwide voluntary recall. That’s all 12 products in their lineup, pulled from shelves and flagged by the FDA over possible salmonella contamination. And because these bars have been sold online and in stores since August 2025, there’s a real chance one is sitting in your kitchen right now.
How This Recall Snowballed From One Flavor to All Twelve
This didn’t happen all at once. Back in January 2026, routine third-party testing by a contract manufacturer found salmonella in Spring & Mulberry’s Mint Leaf Date-Sweetened Chocolate bar. The company issued a voluntary recall for that single flavor. A few days later, on January 14, seven more flavors got added: Earl Grey, Lavender Rose, Mango Chili, Mixed Berry, Mulberry Fennel, Pecan Date, and Pure Dark Minis. The reasoning was straightforward. Salmonella can be tricky to detect and doesn’t always show up consistently, so any product made on the same equipment during the same time period needed to be included as a precaution.
Then came May 8. After months of digging, the company’s manufacturing partners, working alongside food safety experts and the FDA, traced the problem to a single lot of dates. Since Spring & Mulberry uses dates as the sole sweetener in every bar they make, a contaminated batch of dates means every flavor produced with that lot is potentially affected. That’s how four more flavors, Blood Orange, Coffee, Pure Dark, and Sea Salt, got pulled into the recall, bringing the total to all 12.
Every Recalled Flavor and How to Identify Yours
Here’s the full list of recalled flavors, along with the box color so you can spot them quickly:
Blood Orange (orange box), Coffee (light brown box), Earl Grey (purple box), Lavender Rose (light blue box), Mango Chili (orange box), Mint Leaf (green box), Mixed Berry (purple box), Mulberry Fennel (burgundy box), Pecan Date (yellow box), Pure Dark, Pure Dark Mini, and Sea Salt.
Each bar has a lot code printed on the back of the packaging and on the inner flow wrap. You need to check that number against the list of affected lot codes. The complete set of recalled lot numbers is long. Here are the codes to look for, organized by flavor:
Blood Orange: 025217, 025289, 025325. Coffee: 025226, 025274, 025344. Earl Grey: 025346. Lavender Rose: 025204, 025205, 025212, 025216, 026037, 026040. Mango Chili: 025245, 025322, 025328. Mint Leaf: 025225, 025272, 025342, 025364. Mixed Berry: 025220, 025223, 025247, 025248, 025251, 025253, 025288, 025296, 025335, 026008. Mulberry Fennel: 025230, 025287. Pecan Date: 025233, 025237, 025238, 025239, 025240, 025241, 025290, 025294, 025329, 025330. Additional lot codes across other flavors include 025254, 025266, 025269, 025324, 025338, 025350, 025302, 025303, 026009, 026013, 026014, 025346, and 026037.
If your lot code appears anywhere on that list, the bar is part of the recall. Don’t eat it.
Why a Date Ingredient Caused All of This
If you’re not familiar with Spring & Mulberry, here’s the short version. They’re a North Carolina-based artisan chocolate company that sweetens its bars exclusively with dates instead of refined sugar. Their Pure Dark bar, for example, is made from just three organic ingredients: cacao beans, cacao butter, and dates. The bars are dairy-free, gluten-free, and soy-free. Most flavors are vegan (the Lavender Rose contains bee pollen). They market themselves as keto, paleo, and Whole30-compliant, and they use direct-trade, single-origin West African cacao.
The date angle matters because it explains why the recall kept growing. When your sweetener is a whole food ingredient rather than processed sugar, contamination in that ingredient lot ripples across your entire product line. Refined sugar goes through enough processing that bacterial contamination isn’t typically a concern. Dates, on the other hand, are a fruit. They’re grown, harvested, and processed in a way that can introduce bacteria if something goes wrong at any point in the supply chain. Once investigators identified a specific lot of dates as the most likely contamination source, every flavor made with those dates had to come off the market.
No One Has Gotten Sick, But That Doesn’t Mean You’re in the Clear
As of May 11, 2026, there have been zero confirmed illnesses connected to these chocolate bars. On top of that, every finished product in the expanded recall tested negative for salmonella. So why recall them at all?
Because salmonella doesn’t always distribute evenly. A contaminated ingredient lot can produce bars where some test clean and others don’t. The bacteria can be present in amounts too small for a given sample to catch. The fact that the date lot itself was flagged means there’s a real, non-zero risk that some finished bars could carry contamination even though their individual tests came back negative. The recall is precautionary, which is exactly how these situations are supposed to work. You pull everything made with the suspect ingredient and sort it out later.
The FDA has also pointed out that contaminated food can look and smell completely normal. There’s no way to tell by examining the bar whether it’s safe.
Exactly What to Do If You Have a Recalled Bar
The refund process is simple. Take a photo of the product packaging that clearly shows the batch code. Email that photo to recalls@springandmulberry.com. Once you’ve sent the photo, throw the chocolate bar away. Do not eat it, even if you’ve already eaten part of it and felt fine. The company’s customer service team is available Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time, if you have questions beyond the refund.
That’s it. Photo, email, trash. They’re not asking you to mail anything back or jump through hoops.
Where These Bars Were Sold
Spring & Mulberry sells its bars through its own website and through select retail partners across the country. The recalled products have been available for purchase since August 2025, which means we’re talking about roughly nine months of product potentially sitting in kitchens, office snack drawers, and gift bags all over the United States.
The company sells bars online in multi-packs (3-packs, 6-packs, and 12-packs) and ships with ice packs and insulation during warmer months. If you ordered a variety pack or gave these as gifts over the holidays, reach out to whoever received them. They may not be paying attention to recall news.
This is worth taking seriously even though Spring & Mulberry is a specialty brand and not something you’d find in every grocery aisle. Their online sales reach is nationwide, and their retail partnerships put them in stores across the country. The recall isn’t limited to any particular state or region.
What Salmonella Actually Does
Salmonella is one of the most common causes of food poisoning in the U.S. Symptoms typically show up anywhere from 6 to 72 hours after eating contaminated food. Most people experience diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps. For otherwise healthy adults, the infection usually clears up on its own within a few days to a week without any specialized treatment. It’s unpleasant, but it passes.
The bigger concern is for young children, older adults, pregnant women, and anyone with a weakened immune system. In those groups, the infection can become severe, sometimes requiring hospitalization. In rare cases, the bacteria can enter the bloodstream and cause more serious complications. According to the Mayo Clinic, many people who get salmonella initially think they just have a stomach bug, which means cases can go unrecognized.
The Takeaway
This recall covers every single product Spring & Mulberry makes. All 12 flavors. All the lot codes listed above. If you’ve bought any of their bars since August 2025, go check the lot number right now. If it matches, take a photo, email the company, and toss the bar. You’ll get your money back.
No one has gotten sick from these bars so far, and the finished products have all tested negative. But the contaminated date lot is enough of a red flag that the FDA and the company agreed everything made with it needs to go. That’s the right call. A precautionary recall with zero illnesses is a much better outcome than the alternative.
Go check your pantry. And if you gifted any of these bars to someone, shoot them a text.
