Perdue is recalling chicken nuggets -- for the second time in less than two weeks

Zlati Meyer | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Recall: Chicken nuggets may be contaminated with wood Perdue Farms is recalling almost 70,000 pounds of chicken nuggets after consumers complained about finding wood in their food.

Perdue Foods is recalling more than 16,000 pounds of refrigerated chicken nuggets because of an undeclared allergen and an incorrect UPC code.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after the company issued another chicken nuggets recall because consumers found wood in them.

The new recall is of Fun Shapes Chicken Breast Nuggets, which contain milk not listed on the label, according to the company. Affected are 16,011 pounds or approximately 21,348 packages of the nuggets.

The recall is for 12-ounce packages with a use-by date of March 11 and lot codes 17009010-19009010. The nuggets, which were produced on Jan. 10, have the establishment number P-369 inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture mark of inspection.

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The nuggets were shipped to stores in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

A store noticed the incorrect label and reported it to the company, according to the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions, resulting from people eating these nuggets.

Jeff Shaw, Perdue’s vice president for quality assurance, said it was an isolated error during a specific part of the production run, but as a precaution, the food is being recalled.

This was the second recent Perdue chicken nugget recall. The other one was on Jan. 17.

"We care deeply about the consumers that buy our products and trust us to provide their families safe high-quality food," the company said Tuesday. "Having two recalls in a short period of time is not what consumers expect of us or what we expect of ourselves. We are taking a very hard look at our processes to ensure that every product that comes from Perdue meets those expectations."

In the first instance, Perdue recalled 22-ounce bags of its SimplySmart Organics Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets Gluten Free after receiving three customers complaints about wood, according to the Safety and Inspection Service, which also logged a customer complaint. No injuries or illness were reported.

The nearly 49,632 bags of frozen, fully cooked nuggets were produced on Oct. 25, 2018, and have a Oct. 25, 2019 best-by date.

At the time, Shaw said that after a company investigation, Perdue "strongly believe(s) this to be an isolated incident, as only a minimal amount of these packages has the potential to contain pieces of wood." The recall of all packages produced during the same product run was done "out of an abundance of caution."

Anyone who bought the recalled packages of either nuggets may get a full refund. Those who purchased the Fun Shapes Chicken Breast Nuggets may call Perdue at 866-866-3703, while people with the SimplySmart variety are asked to phone 877-727-3447.

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