14 Food Recalls That Will Always Haunt Tyson Foods

Tyson Foods is one of the biggest food producers in the game. The company is behind several of the largest processed meat brands out there, from Hillshire Farm to Jimmy Dean. Let's be real, though: When you think of Tyson Foods, you probably think of its chicken products. Sold under the Tyson brand name, its frozen chicken nuggets, patties, and tenders are in pretty much every supermarket across the land — but the company hasn't always been free of controversy. Aside from personnel dramas like its CFO being arrested for a bizarre drunken break-in, a disproportionately large amount of its chicken products have had to be recalled over the years due to hazards and quality concerns.

Somewhat curiously, Tyson Foods' recalls have often been issued because of one key issue: Foreign materials like plastic, rubber, and metal. Tyson Foods isn't alone in this problem, with a review published in Heliyon noting that a tenth of all food recalls in the past decade have been due to foreign objects. However, it definitely seems to have a particular issue with keeping untoward items out of its food, as well as preventing them from becoming contaminated with potential bacteria. Are you prepared to be gently disturbed by the items that have ended up in its chicken nuggets? If you are, come take a look at the company's biggest missteps.

If a food product calls itself "Fun Nuggets," you can sort of expect them to be ... well ... fun, right? Unfortunately, if you were buying Tyson's Fun Nuggets in 2023, you might have found they were anything but. Tyson recalled 30,000 pounds of its dinosaur-shaped nuggets in November of that year, when several people who purchased them found small pieces of metal inside.

This was all the more worrying due to the fact that these chicken nuggets are clearly intended for young children, who may have been at increased risk of choking or experiencing damage as a result of these foreign objects. Unfortunately, one person did experience what the Food Safety and Inspection Service referred to as a "minor oral injury," as a result of eating one of the nuggets. Luckily for Tyson Foods, the contaminated batch of Fun Nuggets was pretty limited. The company didn't have to recall a huge amount of its product, which was all produced in one day in a single location. The fact that the nuggets were shipped to nine different states for distribution before they were recalled didn't exactly make things simple, though. ‌

Most people are fairly trusting of their food labels. After all, why shouldn't they be? We generally have no reason to doubt them, after all. However, a 2012 food recall issued by Tyson Foods might cause you to think a little differently. The food company had to ask customers to return or dispose of several of its chicken wing products due to a grave mislabeling error that put those who experience food allergies at risk.

Somehow, Tyson Foods' Buffalo Style Boneless Chicken Wyngz ended up in bags meant for Honey BBQ Flavored Boneless Chicken Wyngz. Not only did this mean that customers ended up with totally the wrong flavor, but they also could have unintentionally eaten ingredients containing soy, egg, and milk — allergens that weren't on the Honey BBQ flavored product's label. Naturally, this packaging error created a huge amount of danger for customers. Luckily, the food company wasn't alerted to the mistake because of any adverse reactions, and instead found out from disgruntled shoppers who ended up with wrong-tasting food. It was quick to respond, though, rapidly recalling over 67,000 pounds of product.

Listeria bacteria is a common contaminant in processed food, and the infection and illness caused by it leads to hundreds of deaths per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Food companies, therefore, take it incredibly seriously, and so it was pretty worrying for Tyson Foods when it found that its food may have been exposed to Listeria bacteria in one of its Missouri-based plants, back in 2021.

This potential exposure led to a massive product recall. Roughly 8.5 million pounds of chicken products were potentially affected, with six different frozen chicken products recalled by the company. The products hadn't just been shipped around the United States, either: They had also been distributed to stores in Puerto Rico, presenting an international challenge for Tyson Foods. Unfortunately, the recall was issued too late to prevent illness, as the company was alerted to the Listeria being in its food from a sample collected from someone who had contracted Listeriosis, who had consumed a Tyson Foods product. The investigation that led to this discovery was conducted following three different Listeriosis infections, which sadly led to the death of one person.

The year 2019 was a bit of a nightmare year for Tyson Foods, largely thanks to one specific recall. It all started in March of that year, when the company had to put out a recall of its chicken strips after small pieces of metal were found in the food. Just over 69,000 pounds of chicken strips from two of its products were recalled — and as it was the second recall the company had put out that year, it's fair to say that the months hadn't been kind to it so far.

Well, things were about to get way worse. This relatively modest recall was expanded in May when the company found that more of its products may contain pieces of metal. The expansion followed multiple isolated complaints from customers who found metal shards in their food, with three of them claiming that they had been injured by them. Tyson Foods therefore had to reassess exactly how much product it had to recall, and upped the weight from 69,000 pounds to ... over 11.8 million pounds. Six different items were now thought to have metal in them, and the company had to do everything possible to get the word out there. We're willing to bet that the folks at Tyson Foods were wishing the year away by that point.

It's not unreasonable to expect our food products to make it to our stores intact and ready to eat. Unfortunately, in 2015, that expectation seemed a little bit high, judging by one specific recall. Tyson Foods put out a recall notice towards the end of that year for one of its chicken wing products, due to fears that it had been adulterated. The company was alerted to the issue after a customer reported that the Tyson-brand hot wings they had bought had an off odor, and created mild sickness symptoms.

The good news for Tyson Foods was that the amount of food it had to recall was pretty small. Just over 52,000 pounds of hot wings were thought to be affected by the potential adulteration, and they had only been produced over two days. If this all sounds a little sinister, it's worth remembering that food that's been adulterated hasn't necessarily been tampered with intentionally. Food can be considered to be adulterated if it contains any foreign materials, or if it's "unhealthful, unwholesome, or otherwise unfit for human consumption," according to the FSIS. As such, this could simply mean that the company used ingredients that were past their sell-by date, and which could potentially be harmful.

Chicken is often accused of being rubbery when it gets overly dry. It's slightly less often that it's called rubbery because it has literal rubber in it. Sadly, at the start of 2019, that's exactly the problem that Tyson Foods had to face up to, when over 36,000 pounds of its White Meat Panko Chicken Nuggets were recalled because they potentially had rubber in them. It all started with one customer who had bought the nuggets found scraps of rubber in them and called Tyson Foods to alert the company, causing it to scramble to get a recall out.

Tyson Foods' plight was helped slightly by the fact that the contaminated products were only produced on one specific day, making things a little easier to recall. However, it doubtless caused the producer a headache. Rubber contamination is a depressingly common issue when it comes to processed food, and commonly comes from wear and tear to rings and seals on the machines along the production line. As rubber evades the magnets that can be used to detect metal contaminants in food, once it's in there, it can be difficult to detect — until someone chomps into it at dinnertime.

Salmonella is one of the most regular culprits when it comes to food contamination, and Tyson Foods has had to deal with its fair share of it. In 2014, it had to tackle a Salmonella contamination risk of its own after an outbreak was linked back to its chicken. Tyson Foods had supplied cases of mechanically separated chicken to a correctional facility in Tennessee. Following consumption of the chicken, seven people became ill, with two of them requiring hospitalization.

In total, approximately 33,840 pounds of the mechanically separated chicken product had to be recalled by Tyson Foods. This chicken wasn't available in stores, and instead was only intended for institutional use, which likely made it slightly easier for Tyson Foods to identify where its product ended up. Luckily, the chicken was packed in 10-pound tubs, which meant that the overall number of units that the company had to track down was likely slightly less.

When it comes to processed meat, there's often a lot of plastic involved: These products often come in plastic trays, are sealed in plastic bags, and frequently have little plastic sachets or sauce or seasoning alongside them. What we don't expect, however, is that plastic will be inside the meat. That's exactly what happened in 2019, when Tyson Foods had to put out a recall of its Crispy Chicken Chunk Fritters because hard plastic had found its way into the product.

This particular recall was made even more worrying by the fact that these chicken fritters had been distributed to schools. Tyson Foods was alerted of the issue when three separate complaints came in from schools that had served the chicken. Although no illness or injury was reported alongside the complaints, it's clear that hard plastic in chicken represents a significant choking hazard, and the company scrambled to get its products back. This wasn't made easy — by the time it recalled the item, the chicken fritters had been distributed to 29 different states, and a total of 95 tons of product could have been affected.

Milk is a common ingredient in processed meat, where milk derivatives or isolates can be used as a filler or binder, or end up in breadcrumbs or batters. It's therefore highly important to identify it on product labels as an allergen — and it's amazing how many times food companies fail to do this. Tyson Foods had its own experience with this in 2017, when it had to recall almost 2.5 million pounds of ready-to-eat chicken products that didn't have milk declared on their food labels. A total of eight different products were affected, and to make matters worse, these kid-friendly chicken items had been shipped to some schools.

When you consider that milk allergies are more common in children, and can have incredibly serious consequences, it's no wonder that Tyson Foods was so concerned with getting the word out. Tyson Foods was alerted to the issue by one of its own suppliers, which told the company that its breadcrumbs may have had undeclared milk products in its recipe. This explains why milk wasn't listed in either the allergy information or the ingredients, making it impossible to identify in the product.

Just when you thought that Tyson Foods was sick of plastic ending up in its food, it goes and allows it to happen again. In 2018, the beleaguered food company had to put out yet another recall of its frozen breaded chicken products, due to soft blue plastic being found in it. Around 3,100 pounds of uncooked chicken tenderloins had to be returned to the point of purchase or disposed of — a relatively small amount compared to the company's other recalls, but still enough to cause an impact.

To be fair to Tyson Foods, this one wasn't entirely its fault. It appears that the problem can be traced back to one of its suppliers, who discovered the plastic in its breading ingredients. As these tenderloins had been distributed to food service institutions, however, there was no time to waste. Thankfully, it doesn't seem as though this recall was a consequence of anybody getting injured or sick from eating the plastic. You can bet that Tyson Foods had some pretty stern words with its supplier afterward, though.

Food manufacturers love soy. It seems to end up in everything these days, and is particularly common in processed meat, where it boosts its protein content without breaking the bank. However, as many people have soy allergies (especially young children, who are particular fans of breaded chicken nuggets and tenders), it's vital that food companies label it clearly when it's in their products — something that Tyson Foods failed to do in 2013. Approximately 127,000 pounds of its breaded chicken products went out without soy on the label, with the items being shipped to food service institutions and restaurants.

The issue occurred after Tyson Foods changed up the product's recipe, including an item which has soy protein as a sub-ingredient. Unfortunately, when they did this, they failed to incorporate it into the label or the allergen information. This issue went unnoticed for a surprisingly long time, and the chicken products being recalled were produced for almost a full calendar month before anybody caught wind of the issue. The good news for Tyson was that nobody had reported an allergic response to eating the chicken; the bad news was that it probably made a fairly big dent in its income.

Another day, another piece of plastic ending up in a Tyson Foods chicken product. What's new? However, this particular recall wasn't caused by worn-out machinery or seals, but by what looks like sheer human error. In 2014, Tyson Foods was alerted to the presence of plastic pieces inside some of its chicken nuggets. The company received complaints from customers, including reports of oral injuries as a result of eating them.

Tyson Foods set about investigating exactly what happened — and discovered that the plastic source was a plastic scraper, designed to be used by its employees. The scraper had apparently made its way into one of its blending machines (either by being dropped or left inside it, we'd imagine), and was then mixed up into the chicken. Not exactly appetizing, right? Just over 75,000 pounds of items had to be recalled across two different product lines, which were shipped to stores in 5-pound and 20-pound packs.

The beauty of store-bought frozen popcorn chicken is that you can throw it in your mouth several pieces at a time. Because every piece is bite-sized, though, you're likely not taking a lot of time looking at what's inside each one — and you certainly don't expect to be biting down on a piece of plastic. Unfortunately, in 2016 Tyson Foods learned that its customers in Illinois in Missouri had been having that very problem, prompting a recall of its popcorn chicken from the schools and food services it had been shipped to.

Luckily for Tyson Foods, a few factors made this recall less painful for the company than other ones. The first was its size: Only 35 cases of popcorn chicken were found to be affected, constituting just 1,148 pounds of product. It was also helped by the fact that the popcorn chicken that it was selling in stores at the time wasn't impacted, so individual customers didn't have to worry. While some of its other product recalls were prompted by people getting injured, this wasn't the case here, with a customer instead finding a piece of plastic in the packaging.

Okay, someone seriously needs to talk to those folks at Tyson Foods about foreign items in its products. In 2019, the company was forced to put out yet another recall due to "foreign matter contamination," which is essentially code for pieces of plastic, metal, or rubber. This time, it was its breaded chicken patties that were affected, with just over 39,000 pounds of them being recalled.

So, what was the exact object that ended up in the chicken patties? It's still kinda unclear. A spokesperson for Tyson Foods told Newsweek that the materials may have been "pieces from a mechanical seal or gasket," which implies that they might have been metal — but it could also have been a lot of other things. Regardless, it seems like Tyson Foods dodged a bullet with this one, as no injuries or illnesses were reported to the food company.