2 replies to this topic

[Chris @ Safefood 360°]

Can anyone direct me to where I can find a recap of 2012 (and/or earlier) food related recalls in the US? I am looking for the information as I put this year's training presentation together. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Philip @ Safefood 360°]

Can anyone direct me to where I can find a recap of 2012 (and/or earlier) food related recalls in the US? I am looking for the information as I put this year's training presentation together. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Thermophile,

I’m not sure about a recap or summary of food related recalls for 2011 but I can certainly direct you to the sources of such information.

You will find the FDA Food Recall live alerts here and the entire 2011 archive here. The USDA FSIS (Food Safety Information Service) also provide a live recall service and an archive for 2011. Finally, FoodSafety.gov also has some more links of interest. The above links will point you to earlier archives as well (FDA goes back to 2004 and FSIS to 1994).

Just looking at last years FDA data, which includes both Food and Drug related recalls (vast majority are food related) we can draw some interesting analysis.

70% of the 403 Product Recalls in 2011 were due to the following top 5 problems.

• Undeclared Allergen/Ingredient, i.e. mislabelling. 35%
• Salmonella. 17%
• Listeria monocytogenes. 12%
• Clostridium botulinum. 4%
• Uneviscerated fish. 2%

The remaining 30% is a long tail of biological, physical, chemical and other hazards.

Here is the Excel spread sheet that I used to determine the above.

 2011 FDA Recall Analysis (Excel 2010).xlsx   42.22KB   74 downloads
 2011 FDA Recall Analysis (Excel 2003).xls   109KB   25 downloads

Hope this information is somewhat useful.

Regards,
Philip.

[Chris @ Safefood 360°]

Thanks, Philip!