Hundreds of thousands of “ready-to-eat” pieces of chicken products are being recalled due to the possible presence of foreign objects, particularly metal, which raises severe concerns about the contamination of products that are widely consumed by Americans.
Perdue Foods LLC announced the recall of at least 167,000 pounds of “frozen, ready-to-eat chicken breast nuggets and tender products” due to metal contamination that could result in life-threatening injuries among the consumers.
The United States Food Service and Inspection Service (FSIS), which comes under the US Department of Agriculture and regulates the commercial supply of meat and dairy products, has now labeled Perdue’s recalled products as a “High-Class I” risk, which means that consuming these products can result in extreme health hazards, including death. However, the FSIS revealed that these products did not have any “adverse reactions” on consumers.
According to the FSIS press release, the recalled products were available to purchase at grocery shops countrywide as well as on online stores.
The agency noted that they first discovered the problems in the Perdue chicken products when some customers started complaining about the “embedded” metal wires within the chicken pieces, which prompted the agency to take swift action. The FSIS also raised concerns about the chicken products already in consumers’ freezers and advised people either to discard or return them immediately.
Several cases of meat contamination have recently emerged at the national level, which raises concerns about how these products manage to land in the markets in the first place.
Recently, Boar’s Head Provision Company came under severe scrutiny after at least two people reportedly died, and 33 others were hospitalized due to bacterial infections linked to their meat products. In late July and early August, more than 7 million pounds of Boar’s Head deli meat products were recalled after the discovery of Listeria monocytogenes bacteria in ready-to-eat meat products that was supposedly consumed by thousands of people.
This bacteria is known to cause serious health troubles, particularly in children and pregnant women. According to the FDA, Listeria bacteria can significantly increase the risk of miscarriages and stillbirth in pregnant women while causing life-threatening infections in young children.
Last month, AW Farms also recalled almost 6,900 pounds of hot dogs that were “produced Without Benefit of Inspection.”
Other common causes of food product recalls are misbranding, presence of unreported allergens in the eatables, violation of import rules, and processing defects.
