SPRINGDALE: Tyson Foods significantly expanded a recall of frozen, ready-to-eat chicken strips to close to 12 million pounds (5.4 million kg) over contamination concerns, the US Department of Agriculture said on Saturday.
The Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said it was aware of six complaints from consumers who found pieces of metal in the product.
“Consumers expect that the food they eat is safe. In their best interest and in an abundance of caution we’re taking quick and decisive action to expand this recall,” said Barbara Masters, DVM, vice president of regulatory food policy, food and agriculture for Tyson Foods.
“Our company is taking corrective action at the location that makes these products. We have discontinued use of the specific equipment believed to be associated with the metal fragments, and we will be installing metal-detecting X-ray machinery to replace the plant’s existing metal-detection system. We will also be using a third-party video auditing system for metal-detection verification.”
“Safety is at the core of everything we do. We’re committed to producing safe, healthy food that our consumers and customers can rely on every day,” Masters said.
“It is unacceptable to Tyson Foods that any product might not meet our standards. Because of these additional consumer reports, we’ve decided to take this precautionary step to make sure that we’re meeting our own expectations and the expectation of consumers.”
Saturday’s recall covered around 11.8 million pounds of the product, adding to 69,000 pounds the company recalled in March after food safety inspectors received two complaints of extraneous material found by consumers.
Tyson said in a separate statement that the additionally recalled chicken strips were produced at the same location as the first recalled batch, and had before-use dates between Oct. 1, 2019 and March 7, 2020.
A majority of those products had already been consumed without any incidents being reported, Tyson said.
In January, Tyson recalled a batch of chicken nuggets because of possible contamination with rubber.
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