Perdue Foods issued a recall for thousands of pounds of gluten-free chicken nuggets sold nationwide over fears of wood contamination, federal health officials say.
The ready-to-eat chicken nuggets were produced on Oct. 25, 2018, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
The nuggets are gluten-free and have an expiration date of Oct. 25, 2019, and UPC Bar Code “72745-80656” on the label. According to the Perdue website, the package also lists an Establishment number of “P-33944.” They were shipped to retail locations nationwide.
“The problem was discovered when the firm received three consumer complaints that wood was found in the product,” the Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a statement.
There have been no confirmed reports of illness due to consumption of the products, and anyone concerned about its effects should see a doctor, it said. The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service also announced the recall on its official Twitter account.
#Recall: Perdue Foods LLC Recalls Simplysmart Organics Gluten Free Chicken Nugget Products Due to Possible Foreig… https://t.co/ELT91RJqpr
— USDA Food Safety & Inspection Service (@USDAFoodSafety) January 18, 2019
Federal health officials say some products may be in consumers’ freezers and warned people to throw them away or return them to the seller. In total, the voluntary product recall affects 68,244 pounds of Perdue SimplySmart Organics Breaded Chicken Breast Nuggets Gluten Free, sold in 22-ounce bags.
It’s unclear from the recall how the wood may have gotten into the nuggets. A spokesperson for Perdue told Consumer Reports that the wood contamination was “an isolated incident of unknown origin…only minimal amounts of these packages [have] the potential to contain pieces of wood.”
Perdue also said that “out of an abundance of caution,” the company has decided to “recall all packages of Perdue Simply Smart organics gluten-free chicken breast nuggets, produced during that same product run.”
Consumers with questions about the recall can call Perdue Foods at 877-727-3447.
Written by Faith Karimi for CNN. Additional reporting by Simplemost staff.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.