HOW CUISINART RECALL IS MAKING HOLIDAYS UNHAPPY

Customers say blades prone to cracking apart, causing injuries.

A recall of blades in more than 8 million Cuisinart food processors, the workhorse of many U.S. kitchens, could not have come at a worse time for home cooks. With Hanukkah and Christmas less than two weeks away, there are potatoes to grate, nuts to chop and doughs to mix.

Conair, the hair dryer company that bought the ailing Cuisinart brand in 1989, disclosed Tuesday that the blades of machines in the United States and Canada were prone to cracking apart and had caused injuries.

At least 69 consumers told the company that pieces of the blade had ended up in their food. Of those, 30 people sustained broken teeth or cuts in their mouths, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The number of machines involved makes this one of the three largest appliance recalls in U.S. history, said Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for Elliot Kaye, the chairman of the commission. Kaye owns one of the machines being recalled.

The number of injuries could climb, agency officials said, as they and the company continue to process the complaints.

Jason Perlow, a cook who started the pioneering food blog eGullet in the 1990s, called it “the foodie version of the Volkswagen diesel scandal.” His wife, Rachel Nash Perlow, said she was frustrated that the company had yet to offer any indication of how long it would take to send a replacement blade.

“Cuisinart just screwed up the holidays for a lot of people,” she said.

CUISINART This is a Cuisinart Prep 9, 9-cup food processor. Cuisinart is voluntarily recalling about 8 million food processors. The recalled processors were sold in the U.S. and Canada from July 1996 to December 2015. Only processors with four rivets in the...