Have I got just the thing for you!

I ain't afraid a no rolly coaster!

[consumerist.com]

Come in off the ledge....it's just pretend waffles.

@jecowa: I think hes just a re-animated corpse. totally different thing.

While I agree that this is a hazard to food safety as the recent recalls have proved and a hazard to national security on a foil hat wearing level. I certainly disagree with it being stupid economically. As a said above if we didn't do this more of us would be stuck working in a factory making food. Food isn't exactly a growth industry, we can all only eat so much. With these plants allowing people to work and build other industries we in fact are building a stronger more diverse economy.

You are also hinting that their are only a couple of factories that do any of these tasks. I assure you there are dozens of factories spread across the US that do pretty much any food processing. If we lost all food production in half of the country there would be food shortages but no one would go hungry. Like with the Salmonella scares earlier, there was never a national scarcity of any of those items(it was never hard to find spinach or peanuts). It was only certain brands that were affected since they used that specific plant. Like here, there is no waffle shortage. Their is an Eggo shortage. So you can't get your favorite brand of waffle, eat something else for a few months. Or, heaven forbid, buy a different brand. The system is setup to work like this and that's why we as americans are so well fed and have such a diverse economy.

@bohemian: This is a really good point - though it makes me giggle a bit in the context of frozen waffles. And while there probably are a lot of foods we could do without if their central factory went down, if a string of storms or earthquakes knocked out several large food production facilities, people would notice quickly & perhaps panic. The PB is a great example for that.

The system we have now makes me very uneasy.

Remember how the oil companies use a version of "OOps we're flooded, and our other plants are on reduced output for upgrading/changing formulas/whatever reason" as an excuse for gas shortages and keeping prices high?

Now it's spreading to waffles!

So the waffle factory was likely swamped with horrible water. But it's a nasty part of town anyway. Yeech.

Let Kelloggs take time. The clean up needs to be right.

ZOMBIES, I tells ya, ZOMBIES!

@Laura Northrup:
There is a plant in San Jose, Ca that ships Canadian boxes of Eggos. The boxes even have French on them.

One factory supplying an entire country with a particular food stuff is stupid economically, from a food safety standpoint and to a certain degree a national security standpoint.

DOUBLE CONSUMERIST COMMENTS BINGO SQUARE!!!!

@nybiker: I'm a fan of the Cinnamon Nutri Grain Eggos and tried to switch to the generic...the taste and texture wasn't the same & it certaintly wasn't the same product, so I switched back to the name brand eggos.

@A_smilodon: Good point. I wonder though if some of the Eggo production was destined for a 'store brand'? I always seem to hear that some generics are actually brand names but of course without the brand name on them.

@Kimaroo - Fortified with Kittydus Purrularis: Finally, a story where "I make my own..." makes sense.

@Luna1375: Not to minimize the damage Atlanta went through, but some of our roads get flooded if someone empties a water bottle on the road.

But that photo shows people driving through the water; I wonder how many got stuck because their engines, got well, you know, flooded?

@jecowa: And My Grape flavored Pop Tarts

I don't know about you, but I'm a lot more comfortable with a couple months of plant closure for proper sanitizing of physical, chemical, biological and viral hazards than having a food producer haphazardly operating after a flood.

@Vanilla5: I am not from Atlanta, but in looking at Google Maps, it appears as if Kelloggs has several facilities.
5601 Bucknell Dr SW, Atlanta, GA appears from the images to be a production facility and it appears as if they have storage/distribution centers at: 4950 Mason Rd, College Park, GA and 1135 Commerce Dr, Morrow, GA‎

The Bucknell Dr. Facility backs to a river so it is likely that facility that was flooded.

Not much Kellogs could have done about this.

And as for PR, I also doubt there will be any measurable impact. If it were negligence or they had a salmonella scare or something, the media would report it. Luckily for Kellogg's, the scarcity is a production and supply chain issue caused by flooding and mechanical failure. The public tends to be pretty tolerant of those things.

Eggos just taste icky to me.

I work at Perimeter Mall and we've had plenty of customers that have been busy fixing homes and replacing stuff. They had that weary "I feel like I just got punched in the stomach" look on their faces. Let me tell you, it's rather hard to stay happy and all bubbly customer service-y during those conversations. So much for our drought, though!

cleaning up a flood takes months, and restoring a flooded factory takes even more. you have to first remove all the bad product and raw materials, then you have to clean and sanitize EVERYTHING, and then you have to restock all the raw materials. the amount of work to actually be done actually does fit the timeline that Kellogs is proposeing. they ARE trying to take it seriously, but todays culture doesnt want to hear "six to ten months from now" they want to hear "six to ten days"

a little patience can go a long way

Georgia Agriculture Department Finds Listeria in Sample of Eggo Buttermilk Waffles at Atlanta Plant

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- September 2, 2009 - A laboratory test by the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) found Listeria monocytogenes in a sample of Kellogg's Buttermilk Eggo Waffles manufactured at an Atlanta plant.

The sample was taken as part of a routine inspection by GDA of the Kellogg's plant at 5601 Bucknell Dr. SW, Atlanta. This product was not shipped into the marketplace.

While no illnesses have been reported, out of an abundance of caution, Kellogg is voluntarily recalling a limited number of the following products produced in the same facility:

*
o Kellogg's® Eggo® Cinnamon Toast waffles, 10-count package, UPC code 3800040440 with Best If Used Before" dates beginning with:NOV22 10 EA, NOV23 10 EA and NOV24 10 EA.
o Kellogg's® Eggo® Toaster Swirlz™ Cinnamon Roll Minis eight-count package, UPC code 3800023370 with a "Best If Used Before" date beginning with NOV15 10 EA.

Kellogg voluntarily ceased production at the plant, began an investigation to determine a possible cause of contamination and began a regimen of cleaning and sanitizing. Kellogg will execute its hygienic restoration plan under GDA before it resumes production at the plant.

Consumption of food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, an uncommon but potentially serious disease. The most common manifestation of listeriosis is meningitis, which has symptoms of high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea. Listeriosis can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths, as well as serious and sometimes fatal infections to infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems such as persons with chronic diseases or taking chemotherapy for cancer.

Did I read that someone took the lego my eggo commercials too seriously?

Are you saying Kellogg's is making and controlling zombies? By the way, Franken Berry isn't a zombie, is he? If not, what is he?

A lot of the specialty equipment required to run these plants are manufactured very slowly - i.e. one or two mega pumps per year, and the company that manufactures them makes enough off of those two pumps to stay in business all year. The problem comes when one of those pumps (for instance) is destroyed - then the company that manufactures them either has to push aside orders that have been waiting for years, or ramp up production to produce three pumps. That sort of change doesn't happen quickly.

My guess is that some sort of equipment required to make a frozen waffle plant go is on backorder.

There doesn't seem to be much of a shortage up here in Alberta. o_O; Maybe it's just a States shortage?

This news is really strange for me to hear. I posted several times in the original thread because I'd also been frustrated by the shortage (Eggo is a typical breakfast for me.) I had no idea that the problem literally hits close to home!

Bad PR? Yeah I don't know about that.

Half of the businesses in this plaza still remain completely closed, 2 months later.

I think as a kid growing up in the Chicago area, my favorite winter breakfast was waffles. My mom would make 10 tons of them and we would just freeze them. Then, when I wanted one - toaster oven for 15 minutes and I could eat a good breakfast.

@Kimaroo - Fortified with Kittydus Purrularis: I'm sure they could get out of it by just buttering up a few contractors.

@TWinter: What they're hiding is the fact that zombies caused the flooding . . . and you know the zombies definitely aren't under Kellogg's control.

Considering it was a flood and it's a food production plant, there's probably all sorts of contamination issues that have to be addressed before production can start again.

That's ok Kellogg, I don't need your stinky eggos anyway! I make my own waffles at home!

Amazing that Kellogg let this happen and it will take until Mid-2010 to remedy it. It has to be causing them a massive amount of lost sales and bad PR.

I wonder if they'll pull their ads.