Hillshire on Friday initiated a voluntary recall of more than two million frozen corn dogs after receiving multiple reports that consumers suffered oral injuries after biting into the product. The Haltom City company said it was coordinating with federal food-safety officials and removing affected lots from store shelves and distribution centers nationwide.

In a statement, a Hillshire spokesperson said the company “is taking immediate action to protect consumers” and is notifying retail partners and consumers about lot codes and expiration dates tied to the recall. The spokesperson said the company had received multiple consumer reports of mouth and dental injuries, some of which required dental treatment, and that it had launched an internal investigation to determine the cause. The Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees recalls of meat-containing products, posted a public health alert advising consumers to check packaging and to discard or return affected products.

The scale of the recall — spanning millions of individually wrapped items sold through grocery chains, convenience stores and online retailers — underlines the potential financial hit for processors and their supply chains. Industry analysts estimate direct costs of logistics, disposal and product replacement for a recall of this magnitude typically run into the low tens of millions of dollars, with broader losses from brand damage and lost shelf space potentially larger. For supermarket operators that stocked the product, short-term substitution and price-promotion costs may compress margins during a busy seasonal window for frozen snacks.

Investors and credit markets tend to watch recalls closely because they can serve as a bellwether for operational control, quality systems and future liabilities. Food-safety recalls have in the past spurred class-action suits and insurance claims that elevate the ultimate cost beyond immediate remediation. Hillshire did not comment on potential litigation or insurance coverage; legal experts say plaintiff lawyers commonly track injury reports and purchase records when building cases.

The recall also arrives amid heightened regulatory attention on supply-chain controls and contamination prevention. Food-safety advocates argue that the growing scale and complexity of processed food production — longer production runs, extensive subcontracting and just-in-time distribution — raise the odds that a single defect can propagate quickly. “When millions of units are in circulation, detection lags can multiply harm,” said an independent food-safety consultant who declined to be named because of ongoing work with industry clients. The USDA has publicly emphasized that recalls are voluntary but that companies are expected to cooperate fully and to communicate risks promptly to the public.

For consumers, officials recommended not consuming the affected items and contacting retailers for refunds. Hillshire directed questions to a dedicated hotline and said it would post lot-level details online. The episode is likely to prompt closer scrutiny from retailers and regulators and to serve as a reminder of the financial and reputational stakes facing large packaged-food producers as they manage safety, costs and consumer trust into the coming holiday season.