A recent discovery of salmonella contamination made Malt-O-Meal, a food-making company based in Minneapolis, voluntarily recall two types of its cereals.

The two brands, Unsweetened Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat cereals may be responsable for the sickening of at least 23 people in 14 states and FDA is currently investigating the case.

"The Malt-O-Meal company has been extremely cooperative in this investigation and has done the right thing to protect the public's health," Heidi Kassenborg, director of the dairy and food inspection division at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, said in a statement, quoted by the Associated Press.

The recall was initiated after the company’s internal routine food safety testing detected the presence of Salmonella in a product produced on March 24, 2008.  The company immediately commenced an investigation to determine the root cause of this one positive finding as well as the extent of any possible exposure.

Even though the withdrawal has been  made, until the alarm was given and products taken off the shelves, the cereals had been  available to the public for a long period of time and new cases of the disease may appear. Therefore the authorities are still on high alert addressing the public to throw away all cereals with the "best if used by" dates from April 8, 2008 (coded as APR0808), through March 18, 2009 (coded as MAR1809).

Up until this moment, three people have been hospitalized but no close-death situations were reported. The symptoms for salmonella infection include nausea, vomiting, fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. It is also known to become life-threatening usually for people in bad health or weakened immune systems, such as young children and the senior citizens.

The reported illnesses were spread all over the country, and the states mentioned by the AP included California, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.

“Our first and highest priority remains the safety of the consumers who use our products,” said Malt-O-Meal President and CEO Chris Neugent. “We very much appreciate that our distributors and retail partners have been quick to implement this recall and that the media has helped us get the word out. We apologize for this situation and promise to do everything to complete the recall as quickly as possible.”