Total recall

A food recall is issued almost every day in the US on either the USDA’s recall website (for meat, poultry, and eggs) or the FDA’s recall website (for all other foods, medicines, and medical devices). The reasons for the recalls vary – undeclared allergens, potential pathogen contamination, metal debris, undisclosed toxic ingredients, packaging defects – and no product categories are immune to these issues. The number of recalls has steadily ticked back up after a lull during the pandemic. On Monday the FDA issued a recall of 65 ice cream products for possible listeria contamination,

Does this mean our food supply is less safe than it used to be? The short answer is no. The increasing number of recalls has more to do with inspection and production activities returning to pre-pandemic levels. A new allergen was added to the list of mandatory labeling requirements in 2021 (sesame), which resulted in an uptick of unlabeled allergens as companies adjust to the requirement. Teresa Murray of the consumer watchdog U.S. Public Interest Research Group said that the industry had plenty of time to comply, but some companies failed to do so out of a lack of care and attention.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t take time to look at all of the recall notices issued by the FDA or USDA, or even to read the articles that end up in my news feeds. If something I buy ends up being recalled, chances are good that I won’t notice the recall before I eat the product. I’m thankful my health situation allows me to be somewhat laissez-faire about the issue, but the recalls are important as every year people die from pathogens like listeria, toxins like botulinum, or from severe allergic reactions. A trip to any old cemetery will drive home the seriousness of the situation. You often see rows of small headstones where multiple children in a family died at a very young age. Some of these deaths were due to lack of modern medicines such as antibiotics, but many were due to undetected foodborne illness. Healthy adults have less to worry about, although a bout of food poisoning is not exactly an enjoyable experience (ask me how I know).

There are precautions you can take to minimize your risk such as thoroughly washing your produce before use, cooking to safe internal temperatures, and following other food safety measures such as avoiding cross contamination. Eschewing raw dairy products is another safety step. While raw milk is growing in popularity due to its purported health benefits, it is frequently contaminated with bacteria like Listeria, and 14% of recent raw milk samples from states with a dairy industry had H5N1 virus (bird flu). While there have not been any confirmed cases of H5N1 transmission to humans via raw dairy, there have been four confirmed H5N1 infections after exposure to dairy cows. Caveat emptor.