FDA Food Recalls: You Should Be In The Know

Looking for local food recalls? We assume that any problems with our foods will make the news. But you know what they say about assuming… To stay informed, you’ll have to do some investigative work.

Food Recalls

Every so often consumers hear warnings in the news about the food supply. If you bought this bagged produce or that packaged meat, you may get sick. Processing our foods in such large volumes makes small mistakes national news.

In fact, foodborne illness outbreaks in the U.S. peaked in the year 2000. But are they toying with the numbers? The number of total foodborne illnesses is a different statistic, and the numbers may surprise you. (1)

What Causes A Food Outbreak?

The various regulatory agencies track 31 pathogens that cause foodborne illness. Here’s the list. Unfortunately, the most recent analysis is based on the US population in 2006. (2)

Then an analysis of the major pathogens appeared in the 2011 edition of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. At that time, those 31 pathogens caused 9.4 million “episodes” and 1,351 deaths. (3)

Today, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 48 million people get sick and as many as 3,000 people die every year. But these new numbers include both pathogenic and unspecified foodborne disease. (4)

Did you catch that? In 13 years, the number of foodborne illness episodes increased from 9.4 to 48 million. That’s a huge increase!

Getting Your Food Recall News

Unfortunately, the news doesn’t let you know about every recall. You have to watch the FDA’s own Recalls page to keep your family safe. (5)

Oh, except the FDA doesn’t handle recalls of meat and egg products. That’s under the umbrella of the USDA. (Press releases issued more than 60 days prior, by the way, are moved to the Recall and Safety Alerts Archive.) (6)

Recently in the local news, Boar’s Head Provisions Company expanded a recall of meat and poultry (thus falling under the purview of USDA). A total of 71 products fall under the recall, including deli meats at the deli counter and in packages. The recall affected 13 states, where 34 people have gotten sick from a Listeria bacteria strain, and 2 have died. (7)

Every few years we see headlines of packaged foods causing outbreaks of Listeria and Salmonella poisoning.

In response, the US government has added the program Healthy People 2030 to its mandate. Healthy People 2030 focuses on preventing foodborne illnesses by improving food safety practices. (8)

While this program should help with illnesses resulting from improperly prepared commercial foods, making your own delicious recipes at home is a better first step in reclaiming your health and eating better!

Food recalls and foodborne illness are hard to avoid with the mass production of ultra-processed foods. But you can eat better… and safer.