Hormel Recalling 4.8 Million Pounds of Chicken

Hormel Foods has announced a massive recall of some of their frozen chicken due to reports of foreign objects being present, in this case bits of metal.

What did Hormel recall?

The recall is for over 4.8 million pounds of frozen chicken that was shipped across the country from mid February 2025 until mid September.  Consumers discovered bits of metal mixed in and reported it.  Hormel later determined it came from a conveyor belt in one of their facilities.

What do I do?

Before you panic and start checking your freezers at home, pay attention.  The recalled chicken wasn't the type you will find in the freezer section of the grocery store.  That's the "good" news.

The bad news is, the recalled chicken is food service grade/quality, so it was shipped to restaurants, hotels, and so on.  Basically any place with a large scale kitchen, so schools and hospitals as well.

Due to the fact that the chicken is frozen, there's the chance that cases are still sitting in freezers at these places, hence the recall.  Despite the large amount of chicken and the roughly seven month timeframe covered by the recall, as of right now, no injuries have been reported in connection with the recall.

What to be on the lookout for.

If you work at a place that might have served the chicken or still have it in your freezer, look for:

• 13.9-lb. cases of “Hormel FIRE BRAISED MEATS ALL NATURAL BONELESS CHICKEN THIGH MEAT,” item code “65009”
• 13.8-lb. cases of 3-oz.“Hormel FIRE BRAISED MEATS ALL NATURAL BONELESS CHICKEN BREAST,” item code “77531”
• 13.8-lb. cases of 4-oz.“Hormel FIRE BRAISED MEATS ALL NATURAL BONELESS CHICKEN BREAST,” item code “46750”
• 23.8-lb. cases of  5-oz.“Hormel FIRE BRAISED MEATS ALL NATURAL BONELESS CHICKEN BREAST,” item code “86206”
• 13.95-lb. cases of “BONELESS CHICKEN BREAST WITH RIB MEAT,” item code “134394”

You can also look for establishment code P223 inside the USDA seal.  You can find a list of recalled shipments here and examples of the labels here.