The Canadian Food Inspection Agency added Peace by Chocolate bars and NuttyHero nut and seed butters to its long-running pistachio recall on Jan. 2, the latest expansion of a salmonella investigation that has pulled hundreds of pistachio products from Canadian shelves since last summer.
What was added Friday
The recall now covers a range of Peace by Chocolate products sold across Canada, individually or in variety packs: the Dubai Style Chocolate Pistachio and Kunafa Bar, The Peace Maker specialty bars, the Trans Canada Trail — Peace Seeker bar, the Classic Box, the Proudly Canadian box and assorted filled chocolates.
Some of the recalled Peace by Chocolate products were custom-labelled for companies and organizations, including TD, Dexterra — First Onsite Property Restoration and the Tri-County Regional Centre for Education — a reminder that the suspect pistachios reached well beyond grocery shelves, into corporate gift boxes and fundraisers. Peace by Chocolate is the Antigonish, N.S., chocolatier founded by the Hadhad family, who arrived in Canada as refugees from Syria and rebuilt their business here.
The food inspection agency also added NuttyHero nut and seed butters to the list on Friday, including the maple cinnamon, coconut crunch and chocolate bliss flavours.
Part of a much larger investigation
The additions are one chapter in a recall wave that began in 2025, when the CFIA and the Public Health Agency of Canada linked a multi-province salmonella outbreak to pistachios and pistachio-containing products, beginning with the Habibi, Al Mokhtar Food Centre and Dubai brands. Hundreds of products have since been recalled, from raw nuts to baklava, ice cream and Dubai-style chocolate.
Investigators ultimately traced the outbreak to pistachios from Iran. The public health agency’s final accounting counted 200 laboratory-confirmed cases across six provinces, with 26 people hospitalized and no deaths, and the CFIA’s temporary import restriction on pistachios from Iran remains in effect.
Why pistachio chocolate keeps appearing
Many of the recalled products share an ingredient and a format: pistachio cream, the filling behind the viral Dubai-style chocolate bars that pair chocolate with knafeh pastry. Public health investigators found the outbreak strains of salmonella in samples of recalled pistachios and in samples of the recalled Dubai-style chocolate itself, which is why each new product made with the same nut supply — from baklava to nut butters like NuttyHero’s — risks joining the list.
The rolling recalls have been hard on small producers. Chocolatiers and retailers who built products around pistachios have faced customer questions and pulled stock, and companies such as Peace by Chocolate — one of Canada’s best-known chocolate brands — have had to manage a recall touching items sold under their own name and labels made for other organizations.
What consumers should do
Anyone who thinks they may have a recalled product should throw it out and contact a health-care provider if they have become sick. Food contaminated with salmonella may not look or smell spoiled but can still cause illness. Symptoms usually begin within six to 72 hours of exposure and can include fever, headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramps and diarrhea; they typically end within four to seven days, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, though the infection can be much more serious for vulnerable people.
Young children, pregnant women, seniors and people with weakened immune systems are at particular risk of serious illness. The complete, current list of recalled products is posted under “pistachio” on the CFIA’s recall website, recalls-rappels.canada.ca — and because pistachios keep for months in a pantry, health officials advise checking cupboards even for products bought long ago.
