Starbucks Is Pulling This Item From Shelves Due to a "Quality Issue"

There has recently been a string of high-profile food and beverage recalls.

It's not uncommon for retail stores or restaurants to change their offerings over time or remove certain items to save on costs. But when it comes to quality control, food and beverage products can get pulled for not meeting specific standards—or even potentially posing a health threat.

On June 30, Enjoy Life Natural Brands LLC announced it was voluntarily recalling 13 of its baked snack products sold at Walmart, Kroger, Wegmans, and on Amazon after the company discovered the treats could contain hard plastic pieces. The manufacturer said it pulled the gluten-and-common-allergen-free products "out of an abundance of caution," after the company identified the issue "as a result of internal quality assurance surveillance."

And on June 8, grocery store chain Dierbergs Markets announced that it was pulling all lots of Coors Light and Keystone Light beers from shelves after "Molson Coors recently became aware of a quality issue on certain 12 oz. can packages of Coors Light and Keystone Light produced solely at the Trenton Brewery (production site 1020)," the store wrote in its notice. While the store said there were no health or food safety risks associated with the product, several customers stirred controversy when they posted videos to social media showing what appeared to be slime pouring out of the beer cans. However, no evidence was uncovered that conclusively linked the posts to the recalled beer, according to Snopes. Now, a beloved coffee chain is pulling a product of its own for falling short of standards.

Starbucks is pulling a new item from its menu due to a "quality issue."

On June 26, Starbucks said it had issued a voluntary "stop sell" order for its chicken, maple butter, and egg sandwich after the product fell short of the company's standards, The Wall Street Journal reports. Employees were instructed to discard the new seasonal item, which had only been released less than a week earlier on June 21.

"We are committed to a high level of quality in the products that we serve and always act with an abundance of caution whenever a product or quality issue is raised," a Starbucks spokesperson said, per The Wall Street Journal.

Customers and employees are posting unverified claims that the sandwich made them sick.

News of the product's abrupt pulling comes amid swirling speculation that the sandwich may have posed a potential health threat. As of July 8, five unverified reports of the item making people ill were posted on the foodborne illness reporting website iwaspoisoned.com, NBC News reports.

Others took to social media to allege the discontinued sandwich had made them ill. In reply to a TikTok video, one employee posted "took out two of my baristas at my store," while another replied, "I've been DYING of stomach pain all day," according to The New York Post.

Starbucks pushed back against the food poisoning allegations, saying it pulled the product "with an abundance of caution."

However, Starbucks pushed back against the claims that its food was responsible for health issues. A spokesperson for the company said that the sandwiches arrived at stores fully cooked and were "warmed" before serving, according to The Post. They added that the stop sell order was "not related to listeria and salmonella" as some reports had previously claimed.

"The quality issue that was identified by Starbucks would not lead to foodborne illness and any reports linking the stop sale to illness are inaccurate," the spokesperson said. They added that the decision to pull the product was made "with an abundance of caution," according to NBC News.