The Frozen Chicken Recall That Emptied America's Freezers

While the world's first frozen foods date back thousands of years, it wasn't until the 20th century that people around the globe could truly enjoy safely frozen foods in the comfort of their own homes. Now we're making up for lost time, preserving everything from fruits and vegetables to starches and grains and especially meats in the freezer. But it seems worries never cease — while we don't have to concern ourselves over our chicken going bad in the freezer, we did once have to contend with Perdue recalling over 167,000 pounds of chicken nuggets and tenders in August 2024. The reason? The chicken may have been contaminated with a strand of metal wire.

It seems Perdue, one of the top poultry suppliers in the U.S., only realized that the thin strand had made it into the brand's frozen chicken products after customers brought the issue to the company's attention. Perdue executive Jeff Shaw eventually explained in a statement that the material was "inadvertently introduced into the manufacturing process" (via AARP). While we normally love frozen foods because they last forever, these chicken products, which were produced in March 2024, had a Best If Used By date of March 23, 2025 — meaning bags could still be in people's freezers as of this writing if they didn't hear about the initial recall. Remember, it's just as important to look at these types of dates on frozen foods as it is to read the labels on canned foods.

In September 2023, the major food manufacturer ConAgra Brands had to recall over 245,000 pounds of frozen dinner meals due to possible contamination from pieces of plastic inside the meals' chicken strips. It seems someone found the plastic when they ate the chicken portion, and it unfortunately caused a mouth injury. Less than a year later, mid-Atlantic supermarket chain Wegmans (adding to its 2024 waffle woes) recalled frozen chicken nuggets in January 2025, which were sold in nine states and regions, following customer complaints of pieces of chicken bone found inside the meat.

Also in January 2025, beloved German grocery chain Aldi recalled over 24,000 pounds of frozen chicken and cheese taquitos, sold under the house brand Casa Mamita, due to two complaints that customers found metal pieces in the product. Once again, a consumer reported that they suffered an injury to their mouth from the contaminant. Perhaps one of the most worrisome recalls concerned just 2,000 pounds of frozen chicken kebabs from Al-Safa in July 2024. While other recalls involved much larger quantities of food and contaminants large enough to feel, this one involved the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes, which can cause listeria poisoning and may be fatal to some groups with weakened immune systems, per the CDC.