Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., Waco, Texas, is recalling approximately 4.56 million lb of fully cooked chicken products that may be contaminated with extraneous materials, including plastic, wood, rubber, and metal. This is an expansion of the initial recall announced by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) on April 7, in which approximately 40,780 lb of fully cooked chicken nuggets produced on Oct. 5, 2015 were recalled. The scope of this recall expansion now includes a variety of chicken products associated with extraneous material contamination. The chicken products were produced on various dates from Aug. 21, 2014, to March 1, 2016.
The products subject to recall bears establishment number “EST. 20728” inside the USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped for institutional use throughout the United States. According to Pilgrim’s Pride records, schools have purchased products through the company’s commercial channels.
The problem was first discovered after the firm received several consumer complaints regarding plastic contamination of the chicken nuggets. The firm notified FSIS personnel of the issue on April 6, 2016. FSIS personnel identified more affected product types and dates of production after investigating additional consumer complaints of foreign material contamination received by the recalling firm.
