What To Do With Your Recalled Tyson Chicken Nuggets, Because Eating Them Could Be Risky

Tyson announced Tuesday that it's voluntarily recalling some of its frozen chicken products after customers reported discovering pieces of plastic inside them. Although the cause is undoubtedly serious, it may only apply to households that really like chicken nuggets, since the affected item families may have picked up in supermarkets is a 5-pound bag of fully cooked nuggets. Still, it's important that all consumers check their freezers either way and know what to do with their recalled Tyson chicken nuggets, because serving them up for dinner could prove to be an unnecessarily risky decision.

Along with the 5-pound bag of chicken nuggets, Tyson also opted to recall 20-pound bulk packages of "SPARE TIME Fully Cooked, Panko Chicken Nuggets, Nugget Shaped Chicken Breast Pattie Fritters With Rib Meat," which was sold to one wholesaler in Pennsylvania. The 5-pound bags of the fully cooked Panko chicken nuggets are perhaps of more pressing concern, as they were sold in Costco stores nationwide, the Arkansas-based company reported in a press release. Those bags have a "best if used by" date of July 18, 2017, and a case code of either 2006SDL03 or 2006SDL33. The 20-pound bags — which you won't find in your kitchen freezer — have a production date of July 18, 2016, and a case code of 2006SDL03.

The Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service urges Tyson customers who do have these recalled chicken nuggets to either throw them out or return them to the store where they were bought. And for good reason: The entity classified the recalls as "Class I," which it defines as "a health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death."

The very, very good news is that no illnesses, injuries, or deaths have yet been reported in relation to the recall. The less — ahem — appetizing news is that Tyson believes that the plastic pieces, which were about 21 mm in length and 6.5 mm in diameter, originated from a hard plastic rod used in the production process, which the metal detector through which the food passes would not have detected.

Tyson said that the plastic pieces were found in a "very small number of packages," and that it decided to issue the recall out of an "abundance of caution." Whatever the case, the company nevertheless recalled 132,520 pounds of product, and that's certainly not nothing. So, for anyone seeking more information or perhaps just reassurance that Tyson's chicken nuggets will be safe to eat in the future, Tyson Consumer Relations can be reached by phone at 866-328-3156 or by email, comments@tyson.com.