Perdue recalls 167,000 pounds of chicken nuggets after consumers find metal wire in some packages

NEW YORK (AP) — Check your freezer. Perdue Foods is recalling more than 167,000 pounds of frozen chicken nuggets and tenders after some customers reported finding metal wire embedded in the products.

According to Perdue and the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the recall covers select lots of three products: Perdue Breaded Chicken Tenders, Butcher Box Organic Chicken Breast Nuggets and Perdue Simply Smart Organics Breaded Chicken Breast Nuggets.

FSIS and Perdue determined that some 167,171 pounds (75,827 kilograms) of these products may be contaminated with a foreign material after receiving an unspecified number of customer complaints. In a Friday announcement, Maryland-based Perdue said that the material was “identified in a limited number of consumer packages.”

The company later “determined the material to be a very thin strand of metal wire that was inadvertently introduced into the manufacturing process,” Jeff Shaw, Perdue’s senior vice president of food safety and quality, said in a prepared statement. Shaw added that Perdue decided to recall all impacted packages “out of an abundance of caution.”

As of Friday, there were no confirmed injuries or adverse reactions tied to eating these products, according to FSIS and Perdue. Still, FSIS is concerned that the products may be in consumers’ freezers.

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The now-recalled tenders and nuggets can be identified by product codes listed on both Perdue and FSIS’s online notices. All three impacted products have a best buy date of March 23, 2025, and establishment number “P-33944” on the back of the package. They were sold at retailers nationwide.

Consumers who have the recalled chicken are urged to throw it away or return the product to its place of purchase. Perdue is offering full refunds to impacted consumers who can call the company at 866-866-3703.

Foreign object contamination is one of the the top reasons for food recalls in the U.S. today. Just last November, Tyson Foods recalled nearly 30,000 pounds (13,600 kilograms) of chicken nuggets after consumers also found metal pieces in the dinosaur-shaped products. Beyond metal, plastic fragments, rocks, bits of insects and more “extraneous” materials have prompted recalls by making their way into packaged goods.