FDA Warning on Dragon’s Breath

On August 30th, the FDA (U.S. Food & Drug Administration) issued an alert to consumers and retailers on the hazards of eating, drinking, or handling food products prepared by adding liquid nitrogen at the point of sale – immediately before consumption. 

The FDA is recommending that retailers immediate cease of the sale of products marketed under products marketed under “Dragon’s Breath,” “Heaven’s Breath,” “nitro puff” and other similar names.  These products have been linked to severe and at times, life-threatening injuries to skin and internal organs. However, the FDA states that foods treated with liquid nitrogen prior to the point of sale and before consumption, for example, some frozen confections, are treated in such a way that results in the complete evaporation of liquid nitrogen before reaching the consumer and are no longer at an extremely low temperature, and therefore do not pose a significant risk of injury.

In the event, a consumer does become injured handling or eating food treated prior to point of sale, they should immediately consult with their healthcare professional.

We strongly recommend putting a procedure in place to:

• Notify all Liquid Nitrogen customers of this warning, stating that you will no longer sell to those using at point of sale or pre-consumption
• Identify the usage of the Liquid Nitrogen
• Cease selling to customers mentioned in this warning
• Establish of customer contract, which includes language prohibiting the use at point of sale and/or for Cryotherapy (if your company has decided on this).

For other types of liquid nitrogen sales, we recommend deploying the best practices as highlighted in our article, Cryotherapy Customer Risk Management – To Sell or Not to Sell?. This piece details key strategies to protect your company.