1 min read- Great Value’s dinosaur chicken nuggets were recalled earlier this month after routine sampling flagged high levels of lead.
- Following a thorough investigation, health officials concluded that the result from the initial sample was a false positive.
- The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service retracted the original recall notice and told consumers that the nuggets are safe to eat.
Families across the country were checking their freezers after a popular brand of chicken nuggets was recalled last week. According to the public health alert issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), Great Value Fully Cooked Dino Shaped Chicken Breast Nuggets contained potentially unsafe levels of lead.
But now, there’s no need to send those nuggets back into extinction—because the FSIS just retracted its original April 1 recall notice. (It may seem like an April Fools’ Day prank gone wrong, but the date is just a coincidence.)
The nuggets implicated in the recall were sold in 29-ounce bags in Walmart freezer aisles nationwide. The public health alert was released after a state partner conducting routine surveillance sampling flagged an issue to FSIS. At the time of the recall, the agency was still investigating the potential contamination—but because the nuggets are commonly consumed by children, it issued the alert out of an abundance of caution.
After additional testing was conducted, health officials concluded that the nuggets, in fact, don’t contain elevated levels of lead. The initial result that prompted the recall was a false positive, according to the FSIS. The error was apparently caused by sporadic lead contamination at the testing laboratory, not by the chicken nuggets themselves.
In light of the discovery, FSIS notes that the product does not pose a public health concern. Consumers can continue eating the chicken nuggets as normal, and parents have one fewer thing to stress over at snack time.