The candy maker Haribo issued a recall on Thursday for a batch of cola-flavored sweets in the Netherlands after the authorities said that several people had fallen ill after eating candy that had been contaminated with cannabis.

The contamination was discovered in three bags of Haribo’s Happy Cola F!ZZ candy, according to a warning from the company that was shared by the Dutch food and consumer product safety authority, which said that the sweets could lead to “health complaints, such as dizziness, when consumed.” It added: “Do not eat the sweets.”

Authorities investigating the issue said that several people, including children, fell ill after eating the cola bottle-shaped candies. The sweets were consumed by a family from the Twente region in the east of the Netherlands, the Dutch police said in a statement, adding that “the candies had quite an impact, especially on very young children.”

A sample of the candy tested positive for cannabis, Saïda Ahyad, a spokeswoman for the food safety authority, said in a statement. “How the cannabis ended up in the sweets is still unknown. The police are conducting further investigation into this.”

The Dutch police declined to say how many people ate the candy overall, saying it was too early to share more information.

Haribo, founded in Germany in 1920, is best known for its gummy bears. It now distributes gummy sweets of all sizes and varieties to more than 120 countries.

The company said on its Dutch site that although only the three contaminated bags had been identified so far, it was recalling the entire batch as a precaution. The recall applies to 1-kilogram bags sold in the Netherlands with a best-before date of January 2026.

The candy maker said consumers who purchased the recalled bags should return them to Haribo by mail for a refund. (Other Haribo products, it said, were safe to consume.)

A spokeswoman for Haribo said in a statement that Haribo was taking the incident “very seriously.”

“This is a live issue and Haribo is working closely with the Dutch authorities to support their investigation and establish the facts around the contamination,” the statement said.

Detecting cannabis in food can be difficult, and some marijuana edibles sold in places where recreational marijuana is legal even mimic the appearance of popular candy brands, which has led to concerns about accidental consumption.

A growing number of young children in the United States and elsewhere have been unintentionally exposed to food containing cannabis. In August 2023, six children in the Netherlands between the ages of 4 and 15 were hospitalized after they ingested sweets with THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. The children had found the sweets at home, the police said.