What You Need To Know About The Trader Joe's Soup Dumpling Recall
Food product recalls are never good for the companies that issue them or consumers who might have purchased and used them. Usually, we hear about these recalls when they revolve around bacterial contaminants like E. coli or salmonella, such as Costco's butternut squash recall late last year. Occasionally, though, you get a recall for a different reason, and such is the case now with Trader Joe's soup dumplings.
On Saturday, March 2, Trader Joe's announced it would be recalling its Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings due to the possible presence of hard plastic within them. As of yet, no customers have reported injuries or adverse reactions from contaminated dumplings — all of which were produced in one batch on December 7, 2023 — but the risk is enough that Trader Joe's is urging customers with packages in their freezers to either throw them away or return them to the store of purchase. Any 6-ounce packages with the lot codes 03.07.25.C1-1 and 03.07.25.C1-2 written on the box are affected.
Plastic-related recalls happen more often than you'd expect
Swallowing hard plastic is no joke. Small, blunt pieces will most likely be passed without incident, but sharp pieces can cause all sorts of problems, including damage to your gut lining and internal bleeding. There's also the risk of absorbing chemicals within the plastic itself, which can lead to issues including miscarriage, asthma, cancer, premature birth, and infertility. Not a list of things you'd like to have!
Recalls involving plastic may happen less frequently than bacterial contaminant recalls, but they're still more common than you might think. In 2022, Foster Farms had to recall 148,000 pounds of frozen chicken breast patties due to hard plastic contamination, and in 2023, Johnsonville had to call back over 20 tons of sausages for the same reason. There was also an incident in 2015 involving plastic contamination in McDonald's McNuggets in a small town in Japan.
If you've recently purchased Trader Joe's Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings, you may want to consider returning the product. Though no injuries have been reported, it's better to be safe than sorry.