A large quantity of chicken products have been issued a recall due to the discovery of a contaminant introduced in the manufacturing process.
Several chicken products have been affected, and may contain what the manufacturers have described as a “very thin strand of metal wire”.
Major Contamination
The food contamination is affecting a huge quantity of products, with investigations revealing a large volume of affected food products, likely to have found themselves in many household freezers.
The metals could have made their way into as much as 167,171 pounds of processed chicken products.
Customer Complaints
The discovery was not made on the production line, but only came to light when customers raised complaints.
The complaints led to the opening of an investigation by the US Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
Enlisted
The FSIS enlisted Perdue Foods, the manufacturer of the products in question, to determine the nature and extent of the issue.
Perdue Foods are offering a full refund to any customers who picked up the product in store.
Perdue Foods
Perdue Foods is a subsidiary of Perdue Farms, a Maryland meat processing and farming company founded back in 1920.
In the 1980s, the LA Times reported that the company had spoken to a Mafia boss twice about helping quash a 1981 union action.
3 Products Affected
The recall covers 3 processed chicken products, which all may contain the metal wire contaminant.
They are the Butcher Box Organic Chicken Breast Nuggets, Perdue Breaded Chicken Tenders, and Perdue Simply Smart Organics Breaded Chicken Breast Nuggets.
How To Identify Affected Products
Aside from their name, the affected batches can be more precisely identified by checking the best before date and manufacturing code.
They are labelled with a best before of March 23, 2025, and they have the code P-33944 on the back of the package.
Consumer Advice
Perdue Foods have offered up a couple solutions for affected customers on how to deal with the contaminated products.
They suggested either throwing away the chicken or taking it back to the store for a refund.
Foreign Objects
Foreign object contamination, in which a material or substance gets into a product it is not supposed to, has emerged as one of the leading reasons for a food product recall being issued.
Per unit, it was the number one reason for a food recall in 2022, and may still be rising.
Another Recent Recall
Perdue Foods are not the only company that had to issue a large recall for metal-contaminated chicken nuggets recently.
Tyson Foods also recalled around 30,000 pounds of dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets in which customers discovered metal shards.
