For the fifth consecutive year, Food Safety Magazine has compiled a list of food safety recalls announced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS).
While it’s always possible that some recalls may fall through the cracks, our tally confirms 337 recalls issued in 2019—212 by FDA and 125 by USDA FSIS.
Much like 2018, last year seemed to experience a heightened number of food recalls—so much so that there seems to be some level of fatigue. Let's start by taking a look at the obvious—romaine lettuce.
Romaine Lettuce in 2019
More than half of the year passed before any new romaine lettuce events were back on everyone’s radar. Then on Halloween, FDA announced that, for 6 weeks, they had been investigating a new outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 likely linked to romaine lettuce.[1] The news instantly went viral, prompting the public and industry alike to wonder why the investigation was not publicized and why no recall or warning of any kind was issued to protect consumers.
And that was just the beginning.
Through the end of the year, there were more outbreaks. Some contaminated Fresh Express Sunflower Crisp chopped salad kits infected 10 people in the U.S. and Canada with E. coli O157:H7.[2] Then, a larger outbreak that sickened 167 people was traced back to romaine lettuce that was grown in the Salinas Valley, CA, growing region, prompting the CDC to issue a warning to U.S. consumers and retailers not to eat, buy, or sell romaine from that region. The Salinas warning—and the overall outbreak—lasted until early 2020.[3]
Leafy greens aside, there are plenty more food safety events that led to the removal of products from shelves. Again, just as in years passed, undeclared ingredients were at the forefront of food recalls in 2019.
Undeclared Allergens It’s likely no surprise at this point that undeclared allergens accounted for most of last year’s recalled foods—52 percent of them to be exact.
• Milk - 49
• Tree nuts - 24
• Eggs - 21
• Soy - 15
• Sulfites - 13
Other allergens that prompted recalls included wheat and peanuts.
Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli Approximately 60 food products were recalled in 2019 for Listeria contamination. The most implicated foods were fresh and frozen produce items, followed by ready-to-eat deli products, and eggs.
Next, Salmonella was the cause of 24 food recalls, mostly related to pet food and baby spinach.
While E. coli was the culprit in 21 food recalls last year, one difference to note is that various strains, other than O157:H7, have been associated with more recall notices than in the past. Here’s the 2019 breakdown:
• E. coli O26 caused nine recalls and all of those were linked to flour.
• E. coli O157:H7 caused five recalls, four linked to beef products and one linked to romaine lettuce.