Perdue Foods recalls 167,000 pounds of frozen chicken after customers find “strands of metal wire”

Perdue Foods, Inc. has issued a recall of approximately 167,000 pounds of frozen chicken nuggets and tenders because the products may be contaminated with metal fragments, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced late last week.

The affected products were produced on March 23 and distributed nationwide to retail locations and sold online directly to consumers. The recall includes the following items: Perdue Simply Smart Organics Breaded Chicken Breast Nuggets; Perdue Chicken Breast Tenders; and ButcherBox Organic Chicken Breast Nuggets. These products all have a “best by” date of March 23, 2025.

After Perdue received multiple consumer complaints reporting metal wire embedded in chicken products, the company alerted FSIS, which initiated the recall. According to a report from the Associated Press, the company later “determined the material to be a very thin strand of metal wire that was inadvertently introduced into the manufacturing process.” In a prepared statement, Jeff Shaw, Perdue’s senior vice president of food safety and quality, added that Perdue decided to recall all impacted packages “out of an abundance of caution.”

While the items were shipped to retail locations nationwide and sold online directly to consumers, to date, there have been no confirmed reports of illness or injury associated with the consumption of these products. FSIS and Perdue Foods advise consumers who have purchased these items to refrain from eating them and either discard them or return them to the place of purchase for a refund.