Why are there so many food recalls?

February 24, 2024 by
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If our US Members feel like they are seeing far more food recall notices than they have seen before, that’s because the number of recalls has mushroomed in the last few years. Since 2018, the amount of food recalls issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have increased by more than 115 percent, while those issued by the United States Department of Agriculture have been steadily climbing since 2020 after dropping for several years. So does this mean our food is getting more dangerous, or is something else at play?

The increase can be partially explained by changes in the law governing food safety. The Food Safety Modernization Act, passed into law in 2011, gave the FDA the ability to tighten up regulations, which they have been doing over the past several years. Some of the new rules have only recently been finalized, so we are seeing more scrutiny as a result of that effort. Another factor that plays into this is the fact that most of our food comes from areas far away from where it is consumed. Lengthy supply chains make chasing down the source of contaminants more difficult.

While the uptick in food recalls can be unsettling, it suggests that the agencies tasked with ensuring a safe food supply are doing a better job of detecting and tracing contaminated goods. Following proper food handling practices will help keep you safe as well. Even if your eggs contain salmonella, for instance, cooking them to a safe temperature will kill the bacteria before they can make you sick. If you are like me and enjoy a soft poached egg, you can perform your own calculus, weighing the risk against the reward of eating something that brings you joy. Despite the rise in food recalls, the United States ranks third among 113 countries in food safety and quality, behind Canada and Denmark, so overall we are doing well. Australia ranks 13th and the UK 29th in the same benchmark. (If you factor in affordability, sustainability, and availability, the rankings look a bit different.)

Category: Antipasto

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7 Comments

  • Fyretigger  on  February 24, 2024

    Premade salads have been a recurring subject of recalls, with multiple sources for multiple ingredients the tracking problem is magnified.

  • janecooksamiracle  on  February 25, 2024

    Since Brexit the UK has almost given up on checking imports.
    One day last year they decided on a spot check of 22 lorries of imported goods. 21 were found to contain rotten food including putrid meat!

  • KarenGlad  on  February 25, 2024

    Recently when randomly scrolling online I had the opportunity to sign up for the recall and safety alert email list from the government of Canada. It’s shocking, an email goes out 5 days a week. Most often the suspect food related items are processed or prepackaged and prepared items. And apparently the general public is seldom alerted to the potential for illness. I’m assuming our grocers are watching the same alerts and removing these items from store shelves. It’s reassuring on one hand to know the monitoring being done, but discomforting on the other to see what’s caught and wonder what’s missed.

  • Indio32  on  February 25, 2024

    Hard not to see this as a function of our massive industrialised food system where a tiny number of mega-corporations control everything and profit is the only thing that matters. It’s only going to get worse…. IMHO.

  • averythingcooks  on  February 25, 2024

    Bagged salads (which I stopped buying years ago) & imported romaine lettuce heads seem to be in the news all time now but for me, the 2008 Listeriosis outbreak in Canada linked to Maple Leaf Foods was a huge wake up call. I remember going into the store & being shocked at all the empty cooler space as every Maple Leaf product was gone (it started with all pre-sliced meats and then extended to every product that passed through a big ML facility located in Toronto). I taught about it in one of my senior high school bio courses and the University of Waterloo has used it as one of their Case Studies in Design Engineering for chemical engineering students.

  • Rinshin  on  February 26, 2024

    Another biggie that made us change our strategy because we use it so much in my cooking is green onion. I now try to extend its use by saving the 2” root portion, root in water first, growing that in our garden throughout the year to take advantage of our mild weather. I have continuous supply of green onion this way.

  • KarenGlad  on  March 3, 2024

    What a great idea Rinshin. I can’t do that in my garden year round but a continuous green onion supply in a pot in the window with the rest of my herbs would work just fine.

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