More than 100,000 pounds of turkey has been recalled after complaints of "extraneous materials" being found within the product.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced on January 5 that 133,039 pounds of ready-to-eat turkey kielbasa products are being recalled as they may be contaminated with "bone fragments". The food is produced by Salm Partners LLC, based in Denmark, Wisconsin.
The product comes in 13-ounce vacuum-sealed packaging bearing a green label with the name "Turkey Polska Kielbasa" in white/cream writing on the front. The product was distributed nationwide.
Affected products bear the establishment number "P-32009" with a use-by date of April 2024 or April 27, 2024. The use-by date is printed on the front of the packaging, according to the FSIS.
Salm Partners told FSIS it had received customer complaints about finding pieces of bone in the product and two consumers complained directly to FSIS.
Turkey kielbasa is a slow-cooked sausage product that should be completely free of any bone due to it being a processed, ready-to-eat food.
The FSIS has confirmed that one of the complainants suffered a "minor oral injury" after eating the product, and added that anyone who is "concerned about an injury or illness" after eating the turkey kielbasa to contact their healthcare provider.
The product can be frozen after being bought, with the FSIS saying it is "concerned" it may have been stored for later use by consumers. Anyone who has purchased the product is advised to throw it away or return it to the place of purchase.
According to the FSIS, "only products labeled with mechanically separated meat or poultry may contain limited amounts of bone particles". Bone "particle size" limits are outlined by the FSIS as less than 0.5 millimeter by 0.85 millimeter in livestock and 1.5 millimeters by 2 millimeters in poultry products (0.06 to 0.08 of an inch).
The FSIS says that anyone with food safety queries can call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-MPHotline (888-674-6854) or send a question via email to MPHotline@usda.gov. For consumers that need to report a problem with a meat, poultry, or egg product, the online Electronic Consumer Complaint Monitoring System can be accessed 24 hours a day here. Contact details for Salm Partners have not been provided at this stage.
The last time the FSIS recalled food products for dangerous extraneous materials was in December, when more than 25,000 pounds of boneless chicken bites were recalled following the discovery of clear, hard plastic within the items.
Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Department of Agriculture for comment via email.
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