Tyson Foods (TSN.N) has said it voluntarily recalled approximately 30,000 pounds of its frozen, fully cooked dinosaur-shaped chicken. Fun Nuggets? or Dino Chicken Nuggets because they may contain pieces of metal. A limited number of consumers have reported that they found small, pliable metal pieces in the product, and out of an abundance of caution, the company said in a release on Saturday that it was recalling this product.
The affected products were produced on Sept. 5 and shipped to distributors in Alabama, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a press release. Approximately 29,819 packages of the “Fun Nuggets” are included in the recall. They’re sold in 29-ounce plastic bag packages emblazoned with “Tyson Fully Cooked Fun Nuggets Breaded Shaped Chicken Patties” and have a best-by date of Sept. 4, 2024. The USDA says one minor oral injury has been reported concerning the contaminated nuggets.
Almost a quarter of the Arkansas-based company’s overall nugget sales in 2021 came from its popular Dino Nuggets, which are pre-cooked white meat chicken and breaded as dinosaurs so they can be quickly heated and eaten. In the past, Tyson has had to recall other types of poultry over concerns about foreign material contamination. In 2019, for instance, the company recalled more than 69,000 pounds of chicken strips over worries that bits of rubber from a damaged piece of equipment might have made their way into consumers’ freezers.
Consumers with any contaminated nuggets in their freezers are encouraged to throw them away or return them to where they were purchased. A list of stores that received the recalled nuggets can be found on the USDA website.
While only a few consumers have reported finding metal pieces in the nuggets, the voluntary recall was undertaken “out of an abundance of caution,” the company said in its press release on Saturday. In addition to a potential risk of injury or illness, there is also the possibility that the nuggets could be contaminated with harmful bacteria, the USDA noted in its release.
The contaminated nuggets are marked with the establishment number P-7211 inside a USDA mark of inspection and were sold in stores in Alabama, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The FSIS is seeking anyone with any of the recalled nuggets in their freezer to contact them. The contaminated nuggets were produced on Sept. 5. The company said it would provide replacements for those who had bought the product. Several retailers sold the nuggets, including Walmart, Target, and Kroger. The recall does not affect any other Tyson products. The company is already facing a federal investigation into whether it uses child labor at some of its facilities. That probe, which has not yet been finalized, will likely result in the first federal criminal charges against a large corporation for such violations in years.