Dearborn Sausage Company, Inc., has issued a recall of approximately 1,944 pounds of wiener products due to misbranding and undeclared allergens, according to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA).
The recall involves two ready-to-eat wiener products whose labels were inadvertently swapped.
As a result, soy, a known allergen contained in one of the products, was not declared on the labels, while the other product’s label did not declare it contained pork, a food prohibited in several religions including Judaism, Islam, and Christian Adventists.
According to the USDA, the wieners were produced on Aug. 7, 2024, and shipped to retail locations in Ohio.
The products affected by the recall are:
2-lb. vacuum-sealed packages of “Brookside Brand Fully Cooked Natural Casing Beef Wieners.” The affected packages carry the lot code A0122024 with a sell-by date of Nov. 5, 2024.
2-lb. vacuum-sealed packages of “Brookside Brand Natural Casing Fully Cooked Wieners” that may contain undeclared soy. These items are marked with lot code A0322024 and the same sell-by date, Nov. 5, 2024.
All recalled products bear the establishment number “EST. 10002” within the USDA inspection mark, the agency said.
The mishap was discovered after a retailer notified the company that the products appeared to be mislabeled. Upon investigation, Dearborn Sausage Company confirmed that beef wieners were incorrectly labeled as pork wieners, and vice versa.
Fortunately, no reports of allergic reactions or illnesses related to the consumption of these products have been confirmed. However, the USDA advises people concerned about an injury or illness to contact a health care provider.
The USDA hopes that consumers who still have these products at home in their refrigerators or freezers will take heed, and the agency urges them to discard these products or return them to the store.
Dearborn Sausage Company is a meat and poultry processing company in Dearborn, Wayne County, Michigan, known for a variety of meat products including sausages, franks, ham and turkey, jerky, and deli meats.
According to USDA data, this is the company’s second recall in a decade.
In June 2014, Dearborn Sausage Company recalled approximately 3,660 pounds of slab bacon over a very similar issue: undeclared soy.
The problem was discovered by a Food Safety and Inspection Service inspector while conducting a routine food safety assessment. According to the USDA, the problem occurred because of a misprinting of the labels.