What could be nicer than “Iowa nice?” How about nice Iowans who make candy? This is exactly what the very nice folks at the Palmer Candy company of Sioux City have been doing since 1878. They’ve made gum drops and marshmallows and candy-coated pretzels. The family-owned business is most famous for their cherry-flavored Bing Bars, one of the last candy bars in America still assembled by hand. And now Palmer is in the news for making candy that could make people very sick.
Palmer Candy is quick to point that so far, none of their customers has gotten ill from their candy. But recent tests indicate the potential for salmonella contamination in 29 of their products, including their frosted pretzels and Patriotic White Fudge Cookies (although not their Bing Bars). Results could include vomiting, abdominal pain, fever or even death.
Palmer president, Marty Palmer is way out in front of the situation. He told the Des Moines Register, “While there is a very, very small chance (of contamination), when you are working with food and safety, 99.9% is not 100%. I only want my products to be 100% safe for our customers.” As a result, Palmer has voluntarily recalled thousands of tons of their products that have made their way to distributors in 17 states, including Iowa. They have dropped the supplier of the suspected dairy powder.
Palmer Candy has managed to survive for 145 years in the face of fierce competition from giants like Mars and Hershey by constant innovation and keeping up with the trends. Their first Bing Bar came out in 1923, the same year as Milky Way and Butterfinger. The early Bing Bars came in cherry, vanilla, pineapple and maple. Some of those old flavors might seem outdated by today’s tastes. So, people used to like the taste of maple? Maple… like the tree? What were they? Beavers?
Chocolate only became popular in America since World War I after the military started distributing chocolate to the troops. Before that, there was black licorice candy, strong-tasting rubbery stuff made from, I think, liver and old tires. Kids would stick black licorice gum over their front teeth to horrify their friends and teachers.
Another ghastly candy flavor was cloves. Once, as a child, I remember eating a lunchmeat sandwich dotted with cloves. There were a lot of large, blue flies interested in my sandwich. I happened to look down to see a half-eaten fly. It tasted a lot like cloves.
When I was a kid, I rarely told my parents if I was sick. I was afraid to. Instead of taking us to a doctor if we had a cold, they gave us nasty-tasting horehound drops. This primeval candy/medicine was made, not from actual hounds, but from a furry plant of the mint family once used by ancient Egyptians to ward off evil spells. I’m not saying the horehound drops didn’t work. But have you seen any ancient Egyptians lately?