Chicken Recall: What You Need to Know

A big recall is happening right now. Almost 5 million pounds of frozen chicken products are being pulled from the market. Why? Because they might have tiny pieces of metal in them. This news comes from the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. Hormel Foods Corp. , based in Austin, Minnesota, is the company behind this recall. They're taking back various ready-to-eat frozen chicken breast and thigh products. These items were sent out to food service locations all over the country between February 10 and September 19. So, what products are affected? There are several. For example, there are 13. 9-pound cases of Hormel Fire Braised Meats All Natural Boneless Chicken Thigh Meat with item code 65009. Also, 13. 8-pound cases of 3-ounce and 4-ounce Hormel Fire Braised Meats All Natural Boneless Chicken Breast with item codes 77531 and 46750, respectively. Additionally, 23. 8-pound cases of 5-ounce Hormel Fire Braised Meats All Natural Boneless Chicken Breast with item code 86206 and 13. 95-pound cases of Boneless Chicken Breast With Rib Meat with item code 134394 are included. You can spot these products by looking for the establishment number P-223 inside the USDA inspection mark on the packaging. Here's how the issue was discovered. The company got several complaints from customers who found metal in the products. After some investigation, Hormel Foods found out that the metal came from a conveyor belt. The Food Safety and Inspection Service is worried that some of these products might still be in the freezers of hotels, restaurants, and institutions. They're advising these places to throw away any of the recalled items. If you have questions or need more information, you can contact Hormel Foods Customer Relations through their website or by calling 800-523-4635. For food safety questions, you can call the USDA meat and poultry hotline at 888-674-6854 or chat online from 10 a. m. to 6 p. m. on weekdays. You can also email questions to MPHotline@usda. gov. If you need to report a problem with a meat, poultry, or egg product, there's an electronic consumer-complaint monitoring system available online. Recalls are also posted online.