The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced on its site Wednesday July 15, a Class 1 recall of approximately 20,232 pounds of chicken nuggets.

Giant Food Stores has issued a recall of its gluten-free breaded chicken nugget products after testing positive for Staphylococcal enterotoxin, following the recall of Murray's Inc. products.

Like Us on Facebook

Among the products subjected to recall are 12-oz. boxes of "Bell & Evans Gluten Free Breaded Chicken Breast Nuggets" with a "Best By" date of March 25, 2016.

As per the USDA's site, the food product with establishment number "P-516" inside the USDA mark for inspection was reportedly shipped to an establishment for nationwide distribution.

The contamination was discovered by the Colorado Department of Agriculture while conducting routine retail surveillance and sampling program funded by the USDA at a Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) laboratory, Food Poison Journal reported.

FSIS immediately conducted traceback activities following the notification of positive test result.

Murry's Class 1 recall means it belongs to the highest of three classifications that designates a health hazard situation which poses a significant probability that consumption of the product will trigger serious, adverse health outcomes or fatality.

So far, neither Murry's nor the federal Food Safety and Inspection Services  has received reports of sickened customers.

Consumers who have purchased the nuggets subjected to recall however, are urged by Murry's to return them to their place of purchase, AZ Central has learned.

"Food safety is a core value for Murry's. We value the trust our customers place in the products we produce for them," Ira Mendelson, Murry's president said in a statement.

"We will conduct a full internal investigation in response to Colorado's findings and take every action possible to prevent this problem from happening again," he added.

Staphylococcal enterotoxin is said to cause gastrointestinal disturbance or food poisoning following the ingestion of foods contaminated with the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus.

S. aureus is considered a normal flora found on the skin and in the noses of healthy individuals. They are capable of producing seven different toxins that usually cause food poisoning.

Enterotoxins produced by S. aureus are reportedly considered fast-acting, causing sickness as fast as 30 minutes following ingestion of contaminated food. Symptoms of infection such as nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps and diarrhea normally manifest one to six hours following consumption. Most patients normally recover after one to three days since the sickness is usually benign.

Thorough cooking of S. aureus-tainted food does not prevent sickness. Prevention of the bacterial contamination includes: proper and thorough hand washing before handling and preparing food, keeping food-serving areas and kitchen clean and sanitized, maintaining proper temperatures of hot (over 140 °F) and cold (40 °F or under) food and avoiding food preparation if one has open wound or sore on the hands or if one has eye or nose infection.

Tags chicken nuggets, Murry’s, product recall, FSIS, USDA, Staphylococcus aureus, enterotoxin