A warning regarding Walmart chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs has been retracted after an investigation did not substantiate concerns, federal officials have said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service on April 6 said it was retracting its April 1 public health warning over Walmart Great Value Fully Cooked Dino Shaped Chicken Breast Nuggets.
Food safety officials had said in the warning that nuggets manufactured on Feb. 10 and with a best if used by date of Feb. 10, 2027, had been found to be contaminated with “unsafe levels of lead.”
No recall was issued because the products were no longer on store shelves, but the Department of Agriculture said people may have them in their freezers. The Food Safety and Inspection Service urged people who did to throw them out or return them to the place of purchase.
The warning was based on surveillance sampling carried out by the New York State Department of Public Health that “indicated elevated trace levels of lead,” the agency said in its retraction notice.
Additional sampling conducted by New York authorities and the company that manufactures the nuggets, Dorada Foods, did not substantiate the concerns.
“All follow‑up testing, including testing of the original lot, found no elevated levels of lead in the product,” the Department of Agriculture said on April 6.
Officials then reviewed the underlying laboratory data with New York authorities and “determined that the initial result was a false positive, caused by sporadic lead contamination at the laboratory during analysis, not contamination of the product itself.”
It’s not clear how many bags of the frozen nuggets were affected by the retracted warning. They had been shipped to and sold at Walmart locations across the country, officials had said. Great Value is one of Walmart’s private-label brands.
Walmart and Dorado Foods declined to comment.
A spokesperson for the New York State Department of Public Health told The Epoch Times in an email that federal officials ordinarily request confirmatory analyses of initial screening results before taking any action, such as issuing a public health warning.
“To be clear, there was no ‘testing error,’ but rather this was an initial screening result, not meant to be used without confirmatory analysis or as the only test,” the spokesperson said. “Confirming initial test results is considered mandatory before taking any actions.”
The Food and Drug Administration has warned that lead exposure can be toxic, particularly to young children. Negative impacts can include lower IQ, learning disabilities, and kidney dysfunction.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that it is difficult to identify which children have been exposed to lead since immediate symptoms are rare. Signs of exposure can include difficulty speaking and behavioral issues.
Parents are encouraged to test their children for lead if they suspect exposure, and many pediatricians advise parents to get a test even without such suspicion.