Rubber chickens are no longer a laughing matter, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Last week, the USDA released a draft of a guideline for how meat companies should respond to their consumers when rubber, wood and other contaminates are found in their product.
In January, Tyson Foods recalled 36,420 pounds of chicken nuggets because they were contaminated with rubber, and just a week later, Purdue recalled 68,000 pounds of chicken nuggets because they were contaminated with wood. In response to the growing number of recalls in recent years, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service created the guidelines with the hopes that these industry standards could prevent similar food contamination.
Corby Kummer, a senior editor at The Atlantic, an award winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy, told Boston Public Radio that there needs to be better communication between the meat companies and their co-packers.
"A lot of so-called co-packers — there’s lots of satellite industries that prepare the food for a food company, they’re subcontractors, and they’re the ones who are often putting the rubber chunks and the wood in," Kummer said. "There has to be much closer coordination between the parent company and the co-packers they’re contracting to."
