Trader Joe’s Recalls Popular Chicken Soup Dumplings Over Contamination With Hard Plastic

• Trader Joe’s has recalled more than 61,000 pounds of its popular Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings.
• The recalled dumplings may be contaminated with hard plastic pieces from a permanent marker.
• The recall affects Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings with an expiration date of March 7, 2025, lot codes 03.07.25.C1-1 and 03.07.25.C1-2, and USDA mark of inspection number P-46009.

Trader Joe’s has recalled more than 61,000 pounds of its popular Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings, which could be contaminated with hard plastic pieces from a permanent marker.

The products were produced on December 7, 2023 and were shipped to Trader Joe’s stores across the country, according to an announcement posted Saturday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

The recalled Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings have the following information printed on their packaging:

• Best-by date of March 7, 2025
• Lot codes 03.07.25.C1-1 or 03.07.25.C1-2
• Establishment number P-46009 in the USDA mark of inspection

CJ Foods Manufacturing Beaumont Corporation—the company that produces the soup dumplings—received complaints from customers who found the plastic pieces in their product. However, no injuries or other health issues have been reported in connection to the recall.

The FSIS is encouraging people to check their freezers to see if they’ve purchased the recalled product. People shouldn’t eat the dumplings, and can either throw them away or return them to a Trader Joe’s for a refund.

Customers can call 626-599-3817 or send an email to Trader Joe’s Customer Relations with any questions.

Recent Trader Joe’s Recalls

This steamed soup dumpling recall is the most recent in what has become a string of Trader Joe’s recalls.

Last month, certain Trader Joe’s products were named in a large dairy recall—cotija cheese used in their Chicken Enchiladas Verde, Cilantro Salad Dressing, and Elote Chopped Salad Kit was potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

And similar to this latest recall, Trader Joe’s also recalled a number of products last summer due to possible foreign object contamination.

In August 2023, Trader Joe’s multigrain crackers were recalled due to potential metal contamination. In July 2023, two types of Trader Joe’s cookies and Trader Joe’s Fully Cooked Falafel were recalled due to contamination with rocks, and its Unexpected Broccoli Cheddar Soup was recalled over possible contamination with insects.

When food has some sort of foreign object or material in it, there’s a chance that the consumer could become injured—the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns of the potential for “traumatic injury including laceration and perforation of tissues of the mouth, tongue, throat, stomach and intestine as well as damage to the teeth and gums.”

This is especially true when the material contaminating the food is hard or sharp in some way, as the plastic bits in a soup dumpling would likely be. The FSIS has rated the recall of Trader Joe’s Steamed Chicken Soup Dumpling as Class I, meaning that there is a “reasonable probability” that eating the contaminated food could lead to health issues.

However, a person’s risk of becoming injured or sick after eating a product contaminated with a foreign material depends on the size of the object, too—anything less than 7 millimeters is unlikely to cause any serious injury. The FSIS announcement did not include information on the size of the plastic pieces found in the recalled steamed soup dumplings.