SALISBURY, MD. — Perdue Foods LLC noted in a post on Aug. 23 that it would voluntarily withdraw frozen fully cooked  frozen ready-to-eat (RTE) chicken breast tenders “gluten free” after a foreign material was identified in consumer packages.

The company said the item was distributed exclusively to BJ’s club stores.

“We determined the source of the material to be blue ink and a small piece of plastic from an ink pen cartridge that was inadvertently introduced into the raw material before the tenders were breaded,” said Jeff Shaw, senior vice president of food safety and quality for Perdue. “This likely resulted in a few packages that potentially contain the substance; however, out of an abundance of caution, we decided to voluntarily withdraw all packages of tenders produced on the day of the incident.”

The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) released its own public health alert about any RTE chicken breast tenders that were produced on July 12, 2022.

The following product is subject to the public health alert:

• 42-oz plastic bags containing “PERDUE CHICKEN BREAST TENDERS GLUTEN FREE” with a “Best if Used By: 07 12 23” and a lot number of 2193 above the use by date.

The products bear the establishment number “P-33944” immediately below the “Best if Used By:” date on the back of the plastic bag.

The agency said a recall was not requested because the product is no longer available for purchase.  

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers’ freezers.