Chick-Fil-A Recalls That Affected Millions

The fast food industry is no stranger to recalls. Some of the most impactful recalls in history have stemmed from fast food chains such as Wendy's, Taco Bell, and Jack in the Box, with the latter infamously sparking an E. coli outbreak in the 1990s that's credited with permanently changing how the industry handled beef. One chain has managed to mostly avoid the recall spotlight: Chick-fil-A. America's favorite fast food chicken chain has maintained a shockingly clean recall record — but it's not totally spotless.

With its first restaurant debuting in 1967, Chick-fil-A holds over five decades of experience in the industry. While these years have been blighted by the occasional controversy (primarily related to its history of donating to anti-LGBTQ+ organizations), few have related to food safety. In fact, we only managed to dig up a measly total of five recalls, with only three relating to its actual food and just one of these three caused by bacterial contamination. That's a pretty good history, especially when you compare it to the track record of some Chick-fil-A competitors. Here's a rundown of Chick-fil-A's relatively light recall history.

The Chicken Sandwich is obviously Chick-fil-A's magnum opus, but its dipping sauces aren't too far behind. The chain boasts seven different flavors,  with the most famous being its eponymous Chick-fil-A Sauce. On its heels is the Polynesian sauce, a sweet and sour sauce with just the right amount of tang. Back in March 2024, however, Chick-fil-A was forced to recall the sauce en masse because it had too much tang.

The explanation behind the Polynesian sauce's tang was that there had been a mixup during the packaging process. Some tubs of Polynesian Sauce actually contained Chick-fil-A's sriracha. The big concern wasn't the extra heat in the sriracha sauce, but rather the fact that it contained wheat and soy, neither of which were declared on the Polynesian sauce packaging.

In an effort to keep the mismatched tubs out of the hands (and mouths) of those with wheat or soy allergies, Chick-fil-A conducted a mass recall across 27 states and encouraged customers to throw out any Polynesian sauce cups they may have taken home between February 14 and February 27, 2024. Fortunately, the issue didn't impact the bottles of sauce sold in grocery stores, meaning customers could still get their Polynesian sauce fix until the matter was resolved.

Chick-fil-A's only contamination-related incident on this list occurred in 2018, when it was caught up in not one but two nationwide recalls. On both occasions, the FDA had tracked an ongoing E. coli outbreak in the U.S. and Canada to romaine lettuce, sparking Chick-fil-A — plus multiple other fast food restaurants — to temporarily pause sales of anything containing said lettuce. That meant no Cobb, Market, Southwest, or Side Salads (although its Deluxe Sandwich was good to go, as it uses green leaf lettuce).

While the first outbreak ran from March to June, the second spanned from October to December. Both outbreaks combined saw 272 people infected and 121 hospitalized. These numbers included the illness of Eunice Cintron, a California resident who experienced gastrointestinal symptoms after ordering a Spicy Southwest Salad from a Chick-fil-A in Sacramento. She was later diagnosed with E. coli O157 with Shiga toxin and colitis, and the symptoms were severe. Cintron rated her stomach pain as a 10/10 and compared it to a "stabbing" sensation, (via Marler Clark), ultimately spending seven days in hospital before returning home.

This experience is all too common with E. coli, with some infections even proving fatal to those with more vulnerable immune systems. For every E. coli-related recall that ends with zero cases of illness, there's a handful more that, like this, came too late to prevent the worst.

More allergen fears triggered a Chick-fil-A recall in 2016. This time, it was the possibility that its Chocolate Chunk Cookies contained traces of peanuts that led the chain to temporarily stop selling the baked goods altogether. As per its supplier, CSM Bakery Solutions, there was a slight risk that the cookies — which are listed as nut-free in Chick-fil-A's official allergen guide — had come into contact with peanuts during production, making them potentially dangerous to those with severe allergies.

Not only did Chick-fil-A press pause on cookie sales, but it also asked anyone who had purchased but not yet eaten the cookies before April 22 to return them to the store for a refund ASAP. Personally, our cookies are fully demolished within mere minutes of purchase, but we're sure there were some customers out there with stronger self-control who may have had one or two lying around.

Luckily, it seems like nobody with a severe allergy did eat the cookie, as no cases were ever linked to Chick-fil-A. Unfortunately for Chocolate Chunk Cookie fans, the whole debacle did mean that they were unavailable for a week or so before returning in a limited capacity until Chick-fil-A could restore its regular stock in May.

Chick-fil-A's history with the LGBTQ+ community has been rocky, to say the least, and once even directly played into a massive product recall. The fast food chain has a history of donating to organizations that are anti-LGBTQ+, a practice that it vowed to stop for good in 2019. Seven years earlier, however, its former CEO, Dan Cathy — son of Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy — openly pledged himself against gay marriage when he told The Baptist Press that he believed in the "Biblical definition of the family unit." Responses were overwhelmingly strong, with gay rights activist groups staging a "kiss day" at restaurants nationwide and The Jim Henson Company severing its partnership with the company.

"The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over 50 years and we have notified Chick-fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors," it said on Facebook, having recently collaborated on a line of Creature Shop puppet toys for Chick-fil-A's kids' meals. "Lisa Henson, our CEO, is personally a strong supporter of gay marriage and has directed us to donate the payment we received from Chick-fil-A to GLAAD."

A day before the statement went public, Chick-fil-A announced a mass recall of said toys and offered young customers an Icedream Cone as a replacement. While it insisted this was due to a potential safety risk, not The Jim Henson Company's decision to cut ties, not everyone was convinced by the timing.

Over a decade before Chick-fil-A pulled Jim Henson's Creature Shop Puppets, it performed a far-less scandalous toy recall. In 2001, the chain pulled the plug on its line of Planet Discovery toys, which had been distributed at over 800 Chick-fil-A restaurants over the course of two years.

Each Planet Discovery toy was shaped like the sun, moon, or a different planet. Each came with an attached suction cup that could be used to attach it to a flat surface like tables or windows. However, the issue was that this suction cup wasn't particularly secure and could easily detach and pose a choking hazard. Chick-fil-A had received seven reports of the suction cup coming off, with one incident of a child choking on the cup until the parent managed to remove it from their mouth.

Unsurprisingly, Chick-fil-A moved pretty quickly at that point. An estimated 3.8 million units of the toy (which ironically came bearing the warning "Parents: This toy has been safety-tested for children of all ages") were recalled nationwide, (via the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission).