Nearly 5 Million Lbs. of Ready-to-Eat Frozen Chicken Products Have Been Recalled: Here’s What to Know

NEED TO KNOW

• Hormel Foods has recalled nearly 5 million lbs. of ready-to-eat frozen chicken products

• After customers reported finding metal in the products, the brand concluded that the material came from a conveyor belt used in production

• Affected products were sold to foodservice customers — including hotels and restaurants — and not directly to consumers

Nearly 5 million lbs. of frozen chicken products have been recalled due to “possible foreign matter contamination.”

Hormel Foods has recalled 215,258 cases — or 4,874,815 total lbs. — of ready-to-eat frozen chicken after finding metal in chicken breast and thigh products, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The recalled products were distributed to HRI Commercial Food Service, a restaurant supply company, nationwide between Feb. 10 and Sept. 19. Affected products include various batches of the brand’s fire-braised chicken thigh meat and fire-braised chicken breast.

After the establishment received “multiple complaints” from customers finding metal in the products, Hormel concluded that it likely came from a conveyor belt used in production. There have been no reports of injuries or illness.

“This product is only sold to foodservice customers and cannot be purchased directly by consumers,” Hormel wrote in an Oct. 25 press release. “All customers that received the affected product have been properly notified.”

Since some of the recalled chicken may remain in freezers at hotels, restaurants and cafeterias, the food safety service has urged businesses to throw out the products immediately and refrain from serving them to customers.

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The latest chicken recall comes nearly five months after Hormel Foods recalled approximately 256,185 lbs. of canned beef stew product that may have been contaminated with “foreign material,” specifically pieces of wood.

“Out of an abundance of caution, Hormel Foods is voluntarily recalling 17,080 cases of a single code date of 20 oz. DINTY MOORE® Beef Stew as it may contain extraneous wood material,” the company told PEOPLE in a statement at the time. “No other DINTY MOORE® products are affected, and no illnesses or injuries have been reported in association with this recall.”

According to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the affected products were produced on Feb. 4 and the recall was considered a Class I, meaning the products pose a “health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.”

Read the original article on People