To say that 2018 what quite a year for food safety would be an understatement. For many different reasons, food product recalls and outbreaks seemed to never cease over the past year. For the fourth consecutive year, Food Safety Magazine has kept track of every food-related recall 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). As usual, we make no claims that our tally includes every single recall that was issued–it’s always possible that some may have fallen through the cracks. Still, we believe the following synopsis provides a fairly accurate overview regarding what’s happening–and not happening–with food in the U.S.
For 2018, we counted a total of 382 food product recalls. Some products were recalled more than once and that usually occurs when additional product variations, lot numbers or retail locations are identified. Also, as we’ve noted in previous years, a single product can be recalled for more than one reason, say, two different types of microbial contamination in the same product.