What Is a Food Recall?

What do McDonald’s quar­ter pounders, Boar’s Head meats, and cucum­bers all have in
com­mon?

In 2024, these foods were just some of the ones that were recalled.

The past year saw a flood of food recalls. But what exact­ly does that mean – and is the num­ber of recalls tru­ly increasing?

Here are answers to com­mon ques­tions about food recalls and how you can stay safe

What Does It Mean for a Food to Be ​“Recalled”?

A food recall is a method of remov­ing or fix­ing foods that go against the US Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion (FDA)’s reg­u­la­tions. These foods have safe­ty issues that could put peo­ple at risk for food­borne ill­ness. Food­borne ill­ness­es are dis­eases that arise from eat­ing food con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed with virus­es, bac­te­ria, par­a­sites, or chem­i­cal substances.

Food­borne ill­ness is some­times referred to as ​“food poi­son­ing,” but that doesn’t tell the whole sto­ry. Food poi­son­ing is a form of food­borne ill­ness – how­ev­er, there are oth­er food­borne ill­ness­es that aren’t con­sid­ered poisoning.

How Seri­ous Is Food­borne Illness?

It depends on the dis­ease-caus­ing organ­ism, but food­borne ill­ness can be quite seri­ous. Some organ­isms can cause mild symp­toms, such as upset stom­ach or a low fever. But oth­ers can cause severe side effects, like seizures or com­pli­ca­tions dur­ing preg­nan­cy. And in the most seri­ous cas­es, they can cause organ fail­ure or even be life-threatening.

While the elder­ly, very young chil­dren, preg­nant peo­ple, and peo­ple with weak­ened immune sys­tems have a high­er risk for seri­ous con­se­quences, food­borne ill­ness can be dan­ger­ous to any­one. That’s why it’s so impor­tant to pay atten­tion to recalls and to not eat foods that have been recalled, even if you’re not in a high-risk group.

Also read: Pro­bi­otics and Pre­bi­otics: Help­ful Bugs for Your Gut

What Caus­es Food Contamination?

Food con­t­a­m­i­na­tion can hap­pen at any time before it gets to your plate. For exam­ple, some con­t­a­m­i­na­tion is envi­ron­men­tal, mean­ing it comes from prob­lems with pol­lu­tion in water, air, or soil. There are also human errors that can lead to con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, like unsafe pro­cess­ing or food storage. 

There are many con­t­a­m­i­nants that can cause food­borne ill­ness. Accord­ing to the FDA, the most com­mon ones are:

• Norovirus (main cause of food­borne ill­ness from con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed food and water)
• Sal­mo­nel­la (most com­mon cause of bac­te­r­i­al food poi­son­ing in the US)
• E. coli bacteria
• Campy­lobac­ter bacteria
• Hepati­tis A virus

Lis­te­ria isn’t quite as com­mon, but it’s an impor­tant one to learn about, as it’s one of the main caus­es of death from food­borne illness.

Ques­tions about food safe­ty? Your pri­ma­ry care provider is a great place to start. Sched­ule an appoint­ment with a Duly Health and Care pri­ma­ry care provider

What Should I Do If I Have Food at Home That Gets Recalled?

In addi­tion to not eat­ing the food, there are sev­er­al steps to take when a food is recalled:

• Ask the store where you bought it if you can bring it back for a refund.
• If you can’t bring the food back, wrap it before you throw it out so that no one else
  (includ­ing pets) can acci­den­tal­ly eat it.
• Wash any sur­faces (like refrig­er­a­tor shelves or coun­ter­tops), cut­ting boards, uten­sils, or cook­ing equip­ment that came in con­tact with the food.
  • San­i­tize them with a mix­ture of a gal­lon of hot water to one table­spoon of
    chlo­rine bleach and dry them off with a paper tow­el or clean cloth that hasn’t
    been used.
  • Wash your hands thor­ough­ly after clean­ing and sanitizing.

What If I Already Ate the Food?

Don’t pan­ic – the recall isn’t a guar­an­tee that you’re going to get sick. If you don’t have
symp­toms, you don’t typ­i­cal­ly need to get tests or med­ical treat­ment. If you’re preg­nant and have eat­en the food and devel­op flu-like symp­toms with­in two months of doing so, let your provider know.

If you do have symp­toms or think you have a food­borne ill­ness, let your provider know. Mild symp­toms like nau­sea, stom­ach cramps, diar­rhea, low fever, or headache can often be treat­ed with rest, liq­uids, and over-the-counter med­ica­tion. They usu­al­ly go away with­in a few days, but you may need more advanced care if they last longer.

Eat­ing recalled food when you’re preg­nant, receiv­ing can­cer treat­ment, have an ongo­ing
con­di­tion like dia­betes, or are in the high-risk age group (young chil­dren, infants, and old­er adults) war­rants an office vis­it with your pri­ma­ry care provider.

Some symp­toms of food poi­son­ing require emer­gency care, since they can cause per­ma­nent dam­age or be fatal if not treat­ed right away.

Also read: Nau­sea, Vom­it­ing, Diar­rhea: What Should Actu­al­ly Send You To Imme­di­ate Care?

Why Does It Seem Like Food Recalls Are on the Rise?

Food recalls have become more com­mon in the news, but that doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean they are increas­ing. One rea­son we’re see­ing more of them is that meth­ods and tech­nol­o­gy for detect­ing con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed food have improved, so we’re catch­ing them more often. Also, prob­lems with food safe­ty occur ran­dom­ly. It could be just a coin­ci­dence that a few have recent­ly hap­pened around the same time.

Also read: Bird Flu Explained: Symp­toms, Spread, Pre­ven­tion, and Vac­cine Updates

How Can I Learn If a Food Is Being Recalled?

For some major recalls, you’re like­ly to hear about them on the news or cir­cu­lat­ing on social media. There are also ways to stay on top of recalls, including:

• Down­load­ing an app (some send push noti­fi­ca­tions when there are new recalls)
• Check­ing the FDA safe­ty alert site
• Sign­ing up for alerts from the FDA’s and the Unit­ed States Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture (USDA) Food Safe­ty and Inspec­tion Service’s X/​Twitter accounts (@FDArecalls and @USDAFoodSafety)
• Ask­ing about and sign­ing up for auto­mat­ed recall noti­fi­ca­tions from gro­cery stores you shop at

While it’s very impor­tant to take recalls seri­ous­ly, you can still rest easy. The FDA has plen­ty of safe­guards in place to make sure that the food we eat is safe – and recalls just mean that the sys­tem is working.