If you’re a chicken-lover, listen up! We have some scary recall news for you today that may make you want to check your precious purchased poultry, especially if you are in the habit of buying your bird fresh and freezing it for a later meal.

On November 9th, the good folks at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced that nearly 11,000 pounds of tainted raw chicken cutlets and boneless breasts from Pennsylvania poultry company Empire Kosher may be contaminated with “extraneous materials, specifically metal.”

Now, if that quote just made you want to hurl, then good looking out; this warning is not something to be ignored. As a matter of fact, this particular recall is amongst the scariest we’ve reported on in a while.

Although no reports of injuries or fatalities have been described, the USDA has placed a “Class I” recall on the food item, meaning the product poses a “health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of [the chicken] will cause serious, adverse health consequences…”

How to tell if you have purchased a recalled Empire Kosher product

If you buy your poultry at Costco, Trader Joe’s or Wegman’s, open up your fridge or freezer and get ready to examine that package of chicken…

• For Costco customers: The item number that you should be on the lookout for is: EKP46375. It would be labeled on all of the 4—5.25 lbs. packages of the Empire Kosher® Chicken Boneless Breast Cutlet Chill Packs with a “sell by” date of 11/14/17.
• For Trader Joe’s customers: The item number that you should be on the lookout for is: EPK92615. It would be labeled on all of the 1—1.25 lbs. packages of the Empire Kosher® Chicken Cutlet Chill Packs with a “sell by” date of 11/14/17.
• For Wegman’s customers: The item numbers that you should be on the lookout for are: EPK7888, EKP7598, and EKP7488. The first number would be labeled on the 1—1.25 lbs. Empire Kosher® Chicken Cutlet Chill Packs, the second on the 2.5 lbs. Empire Kosher® Chicken Cutlet Chill Packs, and the third on the Empire Kosher® Thin Sliced Boneless Chicken breasts, each with a “sell by date” of 11/16/2017.

How to claim your refund or report an injury

If you have discovered that you do, in fact, own a package of this contaminated chicken, you can contact the company for either a refund or a coupon at 1-800-570-5718, Monday through Friday during normal business hours.

Now, if you have the slightest feeling that this tainted chicken has sickened you or a loved one, get in contact with USDA Meat and Poultry immediately, either by phone at 1-888-MPHotline or online here.

We hate to hear that there is contaminated food—poultry no less—being stocked in our nation’s grocery stores, but it’s good to know that there are great agencies looking after consumers!

We’d like to hear your take on this scary chicken recall. Did you buy the tainted meat? If so, how did you find the recall process to be? Have you ever fallen ill or gotten injured by a recalled product?