Tyson foods recalling 34,000 pounds of mechanically separated chicken

Tyson Foods is recalling nearly 34,000 pounds of mechanically separated chicken products that might be contaminated with a strain of salmonella, according to the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), Associated Press reported.

According to a US Department of Agriculture news release the product was not sold in retail stores. It was produced on 11 October and shipped nationwide for institutional use.

The chicken had been linked to illnesses at a correctional facility in Tennessee, where seven people had taken ill and two were hospitalised.

Salmonella food contamination causes salmonellosis, one of the most common bacterial food borne illnesses.

Among the common symptoms are diarrhoea, abdominal cramps and fever 12 to 72 hours following the consumption of the contaminated product.

The illness which usually lasts 4 to 7 days does not require treatment in most cases.

The chicken was packaged in 40-pound cases containing four 10-pound chubs of ''Tyson Mecchanically Separeated Chicken.''

According to the FSIS' definition, mechanically separated poultry is a paste-like and batter-like poultry product produced by forcing bones with attached edible tissue through a sieve or similar device under high pressure to separate bone from the edible tissue, according to Food Safety News.

The use of mechanically separated poultry can be traced back 1969.

In 1995, under a final rule on mechanically separated poultry, it would be used without restrictions, but must be labeled as ''mechanically separated chicken or mechanically separated turkey'' (depending on the kind of poultry used) in the ingredients statement.

The final rule came into effect on 4 November, 1996.