There are few things better than getting into freshly laundered sheets or pulling on a sweatshirt rich with the scent of your favorite detergent. But, to get these warm and fuzzy feelings, you have to actually do the laundry—which may not be your favorite chore. So, if you're already unenthused about stripping the bed or separating your lights and darks, you don't want to have additional concerns, especially about safety. Unfortunately, some of the most well-known names in the detergent aisle may pose just that. According to an April 5 press release from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), bags of Gain, Tide, Ace, and Ariel laundry detergent pods are being recalled "due to risk of serious injury."
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Per the CPSC notice, Procter & Gamble is voluntarily recalling certain lots of Tide Pods, Gain Flings, Ace Pods, and Ariel Pods liquid laundry detergent packets. Roughly 8.2 million were sold in the U.S., with an additional 56,742 sold in Canada.
The issue surrounds the products' outer packaging, which is difficult to close due to a "manufacturing issue," a notice on Procter & Gamble's website states.
The packaging is made from flexible film that can split near the zipper track and "pose a risk of serious injury to children and other vulnerable populations if the contents of the laundry detergent packets are ingested."
A package opening unexpectedly could also present the risk of skin or eye injuries, and ingesting a large amount of "surfactant-containing household cleaning products" can even lead to death for those with underlying health issues, per the CPSC.
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To date, Procter & Gamble hasn't received reports of "confirmed cases" related to the packaging defect. However, there were four reports of children accessing the liquid laundry packets, and in three instances, they also ingested the pods. These incidents occurred during the period the recalled lots of detergent were sold—between Sept. 2023 and Feb. 2024—but it isn't clear whether those pods came from recalled bags, the CPSC says.
Recalled detergent packages were available at Big Lots, CVS, Family Dollar, Home Depot, Sam's Club, Target, Walmart, and other major retailers across the U.S. They were also sold online through Amazon and other websites. Depending on how many pods they contained, bags of laundry detergent pods retailed between $5 (for a 12-count bag) and $30 (for four 39-count bags that came in a box).
U.S. CPSC
You can check to see if your laundry pods are recalled by checking the lot code on the bag at the bottom of the package. If you have one at home "immediately secure the recalled bags out of sight and reach of children," the CPSC urges.
To receive a refund, take a picture of the recalled product with the lot code and contact Proctor & Gamble for a full refund and a free child-resistant bag to store the laundry pods. The company will also provide a cabinet lock to secure detergent pods and other laundry materials. The refund will be in the form of a prepaid debit card, Procter & Gamble's website states.
A full list of recalled products is included in the retail notice, affecting six different Gain products, eight Tide products, two Ace products, and one Ariel product.
