With reports of food poisoning and foreign objects, Tyson Foods has had to issue plenty of recall notices over the years, and sometimes as much as tens of millions of pounds of products are affected.
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00:00With reports of food poisoning and foreign objects, Tyson Foods has had to issue plenty
00:04of recall notices over the years, and sometimes as much as tens of millions of pounds of products
00:09are affected.
00:11In 2015, Tyson recalled 52,486 pounds of its Anytizers buffalo-style hot wings after several
00:19consumers reported a weird smell. Even more alarming were multiple reports of illness
00:24related to the wings, although whether or not the wings actually caused these illnesses
00:28was unconfirmed. Either way, Tyson wasn't going to take chances, as the company spread
00:33the word through national media, and 32,047 pounds of the wings were ultimately recovered.
00:39The buffalo-style hot wings had been distributed to retail locations across the nation, although
00:43Tyson claimed only that one variety had been affected, so the others were presumably safe
00:48to eat. The affected products were made at the company's processing facility in Pine
00:52Bluff, Arkansas.
00:54This next case actually led to two stores issuing their own separate recalls in 2012.
01:00The original recall concerned 67,269 pounds of two Tyson products, fully cooked buffalo-style
01:06boneless chicken wings and honey barbecue-flavored Anytizer boneless chicken wings. The issue
01:11was that some barbecue bags were mistakenly labeled as the buffalo version. The barbecue
01:15packaging didn't indicate the presence of major allergens, like milk, soy, and eggs,
01:19that were present in the buffalo version. Fortunately, no illnesses were reported as
01:23a result of the mix-up. Both Giant Food Stores and Martin's Food Markets issued their own
01:28recalls shortly thereafter.
01:30Tyson sometimes has products packed by another company, and if that company makes a mistake,
01:35then both Tyson and that other organization have to recall the product. That happened
01:39in 2012, when Tony Downs Foods Company issued a recall after packing cans with a beef product
01:45that were mistakenly labeled as chunk chicken. The product was fully cooked and safe for
01:49people to eat, but it probably was annoying to shoppers who thought they were purchasing
01:52chicken only to find beef instead.
01:54I wasn't expecting that.
01:56One other issue was that the beef contained wheat, which is a major allergen that has
02:00to be noted on product labels. The label didn't say there was any wheat in the product, as
02:05the chicken didn't contain any. The United States Department of Agriculture noted that
02:09cans of chicken with certain manufacturer codes had been packed correctly and weren't
02:13part of the recall.
02:15In 2014, Tyson weathered a recall caused by plastic contamination, and this was one of
02:20the worst ones in terms of its effects on consumers. Ultimately, about 75,320 pounds
02:26of cooked chicken nuggets had to be recalled after people found small bits of plastic in
02:30them. Even worse, some people reportedly sustained minor mouth injuries from eating the nuggets.
02:35The plastic apparently came from a scraper that was dropped or left inside a blending
02:39machine at a processing plant.
02:41Tyson found that only one production line was affected. Nuggets sold under the Tyson
02:45brand were sent to Sam's Club, while those sold under Tyson's spare time brand were sent
02:50to institutions that may have included correctional facilities, hospitals, and schools.
02:56Tyson had to deal with a bout of meat contaminated with foreign matter in 2022, specifically
03:01an unidentified mirror-like material. The recall involved three specific sizes of ground
03:06beef chubs, which is beef sold in tube form. They were sold under the H-E-B and Hill Country
03:11Fair brand names at H-E-B stores in Texas. The recall happened after consumers reported
03:16finding the material in their beef. The inedible and mysterious nature of the material made
03:21this recall a priority and garnered it a Class 1 designation, meaning it could cause injury
03:26or death.
03:27Tyson and the USDA worked to alert as many consumers as possible, while also ensuring
03:32that all affected stores removed the product from their shelves as quickly as possible.
03:37Consumers were told to discard the meat or return it to the store.
03:40No other ground beef products have been affected.
03:43Tyson issued a recall notice in 2013 for 127,000 pounds of uncooked breaded chicken tenderloins
03:49that had been sent to institutional and commercial kitchens under the spare time and Tyson labels.
03:55The problem was an undeclared allergen that escaped detection due to a product label change.
03:59Specifically, the marinade in the product had been reformulated and contained soy protein,
04:04but the packaging hadn't been updated to account for this change. That's a potentially big
04:08problem for anyone with a soy allergy.
04:10This time, the company found out about the issue before any consumers reported it, and
04:14there weren't any known cases of illness. What's more, the products weren't sent to
04:18stores for retail sale, and the USDA ultimately recovered over 65,000 pounds.
04:24Tyson Foods owns Tyson Fresh Meats, which was formed when the larger company bought
04:28Iowa Beef Packers in 2001. The subsidiary had to issue a recall notice in 2011 for 131,300
04:36pounds of ground beef products after E. coli was found to be the culprit behind a wave
04:40of infections in Ohio.
04:42Investigators collected leftover ground beef from the homes of the people who had gotten
04:46sick and determined that the Tyson Fresh Meats brand was the source. These products actually
04:50weren't packaged under the Tyson name, as they were instead sold under the Kroger and
04:55Butcher's labels, as well as a generic brand name. And though the issue came to light in
04:59Ohio, the meat had also been packed and sent to stores in several other states.
05:03Get a meat thermometer and make sure you're at least 160 degrees."
05:08Tyson had another plastic problem in 2016, when the company issued a recall for 132,520
05:15pounds of Panko Chicken Nuggets that were sold under both the Tyson name and the Spare
05:18Time brand. The Tyson bags were sold at retail establishments, while the Spare Time ones
05:23were bulk bags meant for institutional use.
05:25Tyson learned about the problem from consumers who found the plastic in their bags. Tyson
05:30actually had an idea of where the plastic originated from in this case, as it may have
05:33come from a rod that connected a transfer belt in the manufacturing facility. Consumers
05:38were told to discard the product or return it for a refund. The USDA considered the contamination
05:43to be so unsafe that the recall was categorized as Class I, indicating a potential for injury
05:49or death, though fortunately no known ill health effects were connected to this recall.
05:54This next case is yet another example of how unwanted plastic is an all-too-frequent cause
05:59of food recalls. In 2019, 190,757 pounds of ready-to-eat chicken fritter products were
06:06recalled after complaints alleged that they could have contained bits of hard plastic.
06:11Schools had bought these fritters for lunches, although the USDA made it clear that they
06:14weren't part of what the department usually distributed for national school lunch programs.
06:18In total, three different schools complained about the plastic after purchasing the products.
06:22USDA officials were also concerned that the contaminated product could have ended up in
06:26other food service locations. They ultimately recovered only 3,905 pounds of the product.
06:32However, it's possible that some purchasers simply threw them away without trying to return
06:36them to sellers or to the USDA.
06:39Tyson Foods may be widely known primarily for its chicken, but it also owns other subsidiary
06:44brands that focus on different meats. One of those companies is Zemco Industries, which
06:49produces deli meat. In August 2010, Zemco recalled 380,000 pounds of deli meat that
06:55had been used in ready-to-eat sandwiches, sold at Walmart under the store's MarketSide
06:59brand. The meat was potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, which can cause
07:04serious bouts of food poisoning. Luckily, no illnesses were reported in this case, although
07:08the problem was discovered after an inspection found contaminated meat in a sandwich at a
07:13Georgia Walmart.
07:14And all 380,000 pounds of the food product have been destroyed.
07:18In October 2010, the USDA suspended operations at Zemco's processing plant in Buffalo, New
07:23York. The suspension was temporary, as it was supposed to give Zemco time to address
07:27the problems that led to the contamination, although it still led to a layoff of 480 people.
07:33This was the fifth such incident at the plant since Tyson acquired it in 2001.
07:38If you've ever wondered if your fully cooked chicken was actually cooked all the way through,
07:42you might want to skip this next incident. Back in 2001, Tyson had to recall about 2.3
07:47million pounds of cooked chicken products after customers complained that it was undercooked.
07:53That's not something you want to find out when preparing a cold chicken salad, for example,
07:57as raw poultry can be the source of dangerous pathogens, such as salmonella.
08:01It turned out that the company's cooked tenderloins and breast strips were processed in such a
08:05way that larger pieces may have overlapped with other pieces, or they became folded,
08:10resulting in undercooked spots. If you've bought fully cooked chicken in bags for salads
08:14and sandwiches, you know that those pieces aren't necessarily reheated, and they're often
08:18used with little inspection. So, it's vital that these fully cooked pieces are properly
08:22processed at the factory, from cooking to cooling. Thankfully, there weren't any reports
08:26of illness due to the undercooked pieces, perhaps because the problem was restricted
08:30to one processing plant.
08:33Tyson's largest recalls typically involve ready-to-eat items, and this one is no exception.
08:38However, in this case from 2017, the recall wasn't actually Tyson's fault. Instead, a
08:44supplier alerted the company to undeclared milk in the breadcrumbs used in some breaded
08:48products. The recall was issued because milk is a potential allergen, although Tyson hadn't
08:52received any reports of allergic reactions related to this incident. A total of 2,485,374
09:00pounds of different breaded products were recalled.
09:03Plenty of breaded products contain milk, but it was a problem in this case because it wasn't
09:07marked on the package. People who are allergic to milk rely on packaging to alert them, and
09:11if there's no warning, and especially if it's something that they've eaten before without
09:15a problem, then they're probably not going to suspect that anything could be wrong.
09:19Interestingly enough, Tyson actually had the option to use the affected products. After
09:23all, they would have been okay to sell if they had been labeled correctly. However,
09:27the company opted instead to discard all of them.
09:29"'Cause that's where we are now, in the grabbage!"
09:33In June 2021, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service received reports of two people who
09:38had been infected with listeriosis, a form of food poisoning. An investigation revealed
09:43the source of the problem to be a Tyson Foods factory, so a recall was issued for products
09:48made at that location. The affected batches totaled 8,492,832 pounds of ready-to-eat chicken
09:55products, though that total was ultimately revised to 8,955,296 pounds a month later.
10:02A second revision was issued to alert customers that the affected products may have been served
10:06at deli counters and may have had different identifying numbers. This was a particularly
10:11bad recall not just because of the high numbers, but also because the FSIS received word of
10:16an additional illness and a death allegedly linked to the products. They also weren't
10:20distributed just to supermarkets, but to other institutions, including fast food restaurants.
10:25Some products actually made it into school systems, although they weren't part of food
10:28acquired by the USDA for the National School Lunch Program.
10:32In 2019, Tyson had to recall some chicken strips, and it initially seemed like a fairly
10:37limited recall, with only an estimated 69,000 pounds of strips accounted for. It all began
10:42after a couple of consumers alerted the company to metal in the strips. But what seemed like
10:47a minor issue soon got much worse when the USDA issued a revised recall notice. Ultimately,
10:53the amount of food recalled totaled a whopping 11,829,517 pounds. The number of complaints
11:01went up to six, with the Food Safety and Inspection Service noting that three of those
11:05complaints included mouth injuries. One more revised notice stated that the affected products
11:09had been shipped overseas as well. The recall was so urgent that the FSIS declared it a
11:14Class 1, meaning the ingestion of the affected foods could result in injury or even death,
11:20though fortunately no deaths were reported in this case.