Over 97,000 Pounds Of Chicken Patties Recalled For Containing 'Extraneous' Bone Fragments

A company is recalling 97,887 pounds of its raw chicken patty products because they may contain pieces of "extraneous materials," particularly pieces of bone. They were sold as Trader Joe's chicken burgers and spinach feta chicken sliders.

The issue was discovered after a customer filed a complaint about finding a piece of bone in the chicken burger product, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) noted in its announcement. In response, Innovative Solutions, a company based in Kent, Washington, is pulling the products, which were distributed to various retail locations nationwide.

If a food product contains hard or sharp foreign objects, it may cause traumatic injury, for instance, lacerations or perforations in the mouth, tongue, teeth or gums. In general, foreign objects that are less than 7mm in dimension "rarely" cause injuries except in certain "special risk" people such as the elderly, infants and surgery patients.

The company has not received any confirmed reports of adverse reactions from consuming the affected products.

Recalled products

The affected products have the code "EST. P-8276" near the USDA mark of inspection. They were produced on "various dates" from Aug. 16 to Sept. 29, the FSIS noted. Quite a few lots of the product were sold as "Trader Joe's Chile Lime Chicken Burgers," which were sold in 1-lb cardboard packages that had four pieces of the product each. Affected lot codes are 2281, 2291, 2311, 2351, 2361, 2371, 2441, 2511, 2521, 2531, 2561, 2591, 2601, 2671 or 2721.

Trader Joe's noted that after a supplier notified it of the issue, it removed the products from sale and "destroyed" them.

"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience," Trader Joe's noted, adding that customers should discard the product or return it to get a full refund.

"Spinach Feta Chicken Sliders," which come in 9-lb bulk boxes that contained 72 pieces, were also recalled. They had the lot codes 2361 or 2631 on the label.

Labels of the affected products are available here.

"FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers' freezers," FSIS noted. "Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them."