The federal government has recalled tons of frozen diced chicken used in school lunches because of complaints about bone fragments in the meat.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Nutritition Service announced the recall last week. About 13 million pounds of the chicken were bought from different vendors for the National School Lunch Program this year. Of that, four million pounds are still in school freezers and cafeterias.

In the last week, 115 Maine schools have told the state they have 735 cases – a total of 29,400 pounds – of the chicken left. Another 215 cases – 8,600 pounds – are sitting in an Augusta warehouse, ready for distribution.

The USDA said bones in the chicken meat have caused some injuries nationally. Locally, bones are found “every now and then” but injuries haven’t been common, said Anne Littlefield, commodity coordinator for Maine’s Child Nutrition Services.

Still, she said, “I wouldn’t want to bite into a bone.”

The pre-cooked, finely diced chicken is often used for soup, chicken pot pies, chicken fajitas and other popular school lunch entrees.

Complaints about bones in the meat aren’t new. The federal government received so many over the years that the Agricultural Marketing Service reduced bone size allowable in chicken meat from inch to inch in 2002. In spite of the more stringent regulations, complaints were steady during this school year and the USDA decided to pull the meat from cafeterias.

Michael Sanborn, director of the Lewiston school system’s nutrition program, said he has 11 cases of the chicken left. Luckily, he said, he wasn’t planning to use it until June.

If he can’t use that chicken, Sanborn will buy some from a private seller or take it off the menu completely. The chicken salad sandwiches made from the meat are “not a high-volume item,” he said.

“So it’s not a huge impact,” said Sanborn.

According to Littlefield, other Maine school systems may have a more difficult time. Some had planned to use the chicken in school lunches this month, and will have to take it off their menus with little time to prepare other meals. Or, she said, they will have to buy more chicken while the fiscal year is ending and money is tight.

“So this is an inconvenience,” she said.

School systems have 10 days to tell the state how much chicken they have left. Although food is destroyed when it is recalled because of E. coli or other bacteria, officials from the Food and Nutrition Service are not yet sure what will happen to the cases of chicken recalled because of bones.

They are expected to make that decision in the next couple of weeks.

ltice@sunjournal.com