One Kentucky woman thought she was getting regular, buttery Ritz Crackers. Then, she opened the package and smelled something suspicious.
Raven Brackens (@rae_rnb) expressed her concerns about a fairly peanut-y smelling package of Ritz, a product that does not list peanuts on its ingredients list. Concerned for those with severe nut allergies, she posted a warning video on TikTok that now has over 10,000 views.
“ So I just opened a fresh pack of Ritz, right,” Brackens shared while wearing white gloves. “And I was looking at these and I was like, is that peanut butter? And it is. It smells like peanut butter. And nowhere on the box does it say, ‘may contain nuts made in a factory with nuts.’”
To her, it seemed very clear that the Ritz may be a contamination hazard. In her video, at least three Ritz crackers had an unknown brown ‘gunk’ that looked suspiciously like peanut butter.
“Selling ‘plain’ crackers without clearly stating they’re made in a peanut facility is dangerous. Food allergies aren’t a suggestion,” Brackens stated in her video’s description.
Could Ritz Crackers be an allergy risk?
The possibility of peanut contamination for Ritz crackers is not zero, as Mondelez International does make some of its crackers in factories with peanuts. But Mondelez International has not listed peanuts among the ingredients of Ritz crackers.
There are Ritz cracker peanut butter sandwiches available on the market, but only some Ritz cracker facilities make them. Ritz has multiple factories across the U.S., and while some packages have warnings that say the package was made in a facility with peanuts or that they may contain peanuts, others do not.
Ritz also hasn’t had many recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warnings issued that state that the original Ritz crackers contain peanuts. In 2025, did the FDA issue a warning against Ritz crackers, as their variety pack of cheese and peanut butter crackers contained incorrectly labeled snacks. The cheese-filled crackers had a “peanut butter” label on them. But that is the most recent example of an FDA warning against the company.
Are food protections getting worse?
Many commenters claimed that issues with Ritz might be related to a much bigger issue in the United States: the FDA’s recent financial and structural changes.
So, is it true that food protections and general standards are getting worse?
The Trump administration proposed an astonishing 11 percent cut to the FDA, but the white House’s proposal was never approved. However, the overall budget did decrease going into 2026. In one of the FDA’s statements, the administration stated it would “continue to consolidate work to core functions and mission-critical activities.”
The FY 2026 budget, according to the administration’s summary fact sheet, was reduced by 271 million. Ultimately, though, there hasn’t been any significant reporting that indicates this reduction could lead to complete, critical failures from the FDA. There’s nothing that could indicate that the FDA is specifically “dropping the ball” when it comes to statements on recalls.
What do commenters recommend?
Viewers generally recommended reaching out to Mondelez International so that it can issue a voluntary recall and potentially pay Brackens for the inconvenience. This advice could inevitably help consumers, as there’s a chance Mondelez International is completely unaware of any contamination issues at facilities.
More directly, however, viewers recommended advocating for better food safety standards and more oversight over product expectations. The FDA has been described as having longstanding issues: In a previous article published by The Mary Sue, a consumer found small particles in a Great Value pure granulated sugar bag that looked like microplastics. Some viewers cite recent changes to food safety as an issue directly related to the current FDA and changes happening on an administrative level.
The FDA is changing at an incredibly fast rate due to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative. There may be benefits from some (but definitely not all) of the public health secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s changes to the FDA. For instance, the elimination of the incredibly criticized GRAS system, which allows chemicals and substances to avoid FDA oversight, could be beneficial. But these changes are coming haphazardly and without technical oversight. That means that they’re often being implemented too quickly, leading to internal issues.
Ultimately, though, there isn’t necessarily a direct correlation between this event and FDA changes. It’s just possible that they’re related. It’s more likely that any peanut butter substance found on Ritz crackers is a direct result of a manufacturing defect, requiring an immediate recall.
@rae_rnb Selling ‘plain’ crackers without clearly stating they’re made in a peanut facility is dangerous. Food allergies aren’t a suggestion. @Ritzcrackrs @RitzCrackersID #foodallergy #crosscontamination #fypツ ♬ original sound – Raven_N_Brackens
The Mary Sue reached out to Mondelez International and Brackens for comment.
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