Food recalls doubled in 2024 - what you need to know

A new report breaks down how many food reminder happened last year.
Food safety experts resort to conclusions regarding.
Experts explain how to prevent foods transmitted by food and use proper safety.

While things slowed down, there was a point last year in which it was felt that a new and frightening reminder appeared every week. Organic carrots, The meat of the boar of the wild boar, McDonald’s Quarter PoundersAnd more popular products were drawn from shelves or shops in 2024, over the risk of serious diseases. But a new report shows that it was not only felt that there would be a lot of food reminds in 2024 – there was actually a significant leap in them.

Make acquaintance with experts: Barbara Kowalcyk, PhD.associate professor and director of the Institute for Food Security and Nutrition Security at George Washington University; Darin Detwiler, LPD, Author Al Food safety: past, present and predictions and professor at Northeastern University; Wade Syers, D.Soc.sci., a food security specialist at Michigan State University

The report increases a lot of questions about the current state of US food safety, especially with the recent resignation From Jim Jones, the Deputy Commissioner of the Food and Drugs Administration in the US, for human foods, due to a large number of dismissions in people who work to protect the food in the country. Here’s what food safety experts want to know before panic.

What did the report find?

reportWhich was published by the public interest Research Group, a non -profit group for consumer protection, analyzed the data from the food recalls in 2024. The researchers found that there were about 300 food reminders last year, which led to almost 1,400 Diseases.

These reminder were associated with 487 hospitalized persons, as well as 19 deaths. Unfortunately, the hospitalizations and deaths of 2024 are double with the number that took place in 2023.

In general, 13 outbreaks caused 98% of diseases related to food safety problems, and the vast majority of these major outbreaks involved Listeria, Salmonella or E.coli. These were the biggest causes of food reminder in 2024, based on data:

Undeclared allergens (34.1%)
Listeria (22%)
Salmonella (13.9%)
Excessive lead (4.4%)
Foreign material (4.1%)
E.Coli (3.4%)

Why were so many food reminders in 2024?

There are a few reasons why there have been so many food recalls in 2024. One is a failure of corporate directors to give priority to sanitation and other dietary conformity, says Darin Detwiler, LPD, Author Al Food safety: past, present and predictions and professor at the North -est University.

But recurrent contamination issues were also an important problem, he says. “Recent outbreaks, such as the Listeria’s Cap Cap Incident related to Deli Meats and Taylor Farms E. Coli foci associated with the onion used by McDonald’s, highlights persistent problems in processing and manipulating food,” says Detwiler. “Also, companies have distributed food in several states before knowing the results of the tests to determine if they were not pathogens.”

However, this is “a truly complex problem,” says Barbara Kowalcyk, PhD.Associate professor and director of the Institute for Food Security and Nutrition at George Washington University. “We do not find outbreaks if we do not look for them,” she explains. “We do more investigations, but we also have better tools to do investigations.” As a result, the US can go through more outbreaks than before, but food supply is becoming more and more regulated, she says.

How worried should people be?

Detwiler says the conclusions are related to. “The statistics are alarming: the pathogens of food are responsible for about 3,000 American deaths annually,” he says. “The recent growth of reminder and associated diseases indicates that consumers are facing an increasing risk of meeting contaminated food.”

Detwiler is also concerned about recent FDA and driving changes. They “led to a fragmented surveillance system and delayed the answers to contamination events,” he says. While the future number of food reminders can decrease, it may be less supervision due to staff problems, no more, he says.

But not everyone who works in food safety is worried. “In my opinion, our food supply has become safer over time,” says Wade Syers, D.Soc.sci., A specialist in the field of food security of the Michigan State University. The total number of diseases transmitted by food has He went down In the last decade, even though there are still a lot of outbreaks, he points out.

How to prevent diseases transmitted by food and stay safe

Food safety experts point out that access to safe foods should not be something that consumers need to worry about. Instead, Detwiler says that “systemic reforms” need to happen to create better solutions over time.

For now, however, Detwiler recommends doing below to be as sure as possible when it comes to your food.

Keep up to date with recall information. so much Fda and Department of Agriculture in the United States (USDA) have web sites that list the latest eating reminder. Detwiler recommends checking them regularly and examining their own products at home if you suspect that they are part of a recall.
Be cautious with high risk foods. Some foods are more likely to be contaminated than others. These include raw dairy products, greenery with beaten leaves, pre-tied fruits, delight meat and thin poultry.
Buy from renowned brands. This means choosing products from companies that give priority to food safety and provides clear information about their supply and handling practices.
Practice personal food safety. “Wash properly, cook and store food to reduce the risk of contamination,” says Detwiler.

But Kowalcyk emphasizes that public health officials and scientists use better ways to detect food safety issues earlier, eventually contributing to food supply. “The size of the outbreaks has decreased,” she says. “We catch them earlier.”