Chicken recall 2022: Wayne Farms withdraws over 500,000 pounds frozen chicken breast following undercooked complaints 

USDA and Wayne Farms LLC recall ready to eat poultry products (Image via Wayne Farms LLC)

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 585,030 pounds of ready-to-eat frozen chicken breast filets are being recalled by Wayne Farms LLC. The company had initially recalled 30,285 pounds of the product on April 29, which they decided to increase after a week.

The company believes that the recalled products might be undercooked and not fit to eat.

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Chicken breast items from Wayne Farms LLC might be undercooked

Wayne Farms LLC says that their ready-to-eat products might be undercooked and not fit to consume. The issue of undercooked meat was reported to the Alabama poultry by a customer, which led to this nationwide recall.

The recall extension was announced on May 7, with five new production codes and 66 “use by” dates (May 10, 2022, through May 3, 2023). All the recalled products were manufactured between February 9 and April 30, 2022, with production codes 23618, 24357, 24512, 24583 and 24957. All the affected items also have the establishment number “EST. 20214” on the case and outside packaging.

Here are the details of the products that are recalled. This information is taken from the USDA website:

• Nine-pound cases containing eight packages of six-ounce “ALL NATURAL FIRE GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST” with “use by” dates ranging from May 10, 2022, to April 29, 2023.
• Nine-pound cases containing 12 packages of four-ounce “ALL NATURAL FIRE GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST” with “use by” dates ranging from May 10, 2022, to April 29, 2023.
• Six-pound cases containing 24 individual packages of four-ounce “ALL NATURAL FIRE GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST FILLET” with a “use by” date of May 3, 2023.
• 16-ounce zippered plastic packages containing “CHEF’S CRAFT CHICKEN BREAST FILLET” and establishment number P-20214 printed next to March 23, 2023, best by date.

The products are distributed in markets and restaurants all over the US. The retail locations are in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The USDA reports that there haven't been any reports of a medical emergency caused by the product.

However, it encourages consumers to throw out or return the affected products. It has also asked restaurants not to serve the aforementioned products to their customers and return them to their suppliers.

Food poisoning from contaminated poultry is a major problem among pre-cooked items in the country. About one million people get food poisoning from infected meat, with salmonella being the most common bacteria. Around four percent of packaged poultry meat in America is infected with salmonella, which calculates around one in every twenty-five packages.