Why food recalls are on the rise in the US
FDA food recalls are on the rise for several reasons, from undeclared allergens to pathogens. Here's what's wrong with food safety in the US and how you can protect yourself from buying bad products.
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00:00 The Food and Drug Administration recalled more food last year than it had in five years.
00:07 That includes all kinds of groceries like vegetables and ice cream.
00:12 And that's scary for consumers like you and me because last year more than 1,000 people
00:17 got sick through recalled food products.
00:19 And six people even died.
00:21 So let's unpack how a food recall works and how it impacts us.
00:26 I'm Katie Anatopoulos and I cover business and culture.
00:30 First off, there are two main organizations that regulate our food in the U.S.
00:35 The Food Safety and Inspection Service oversees most of our meat and poultry products and
00:40 the FDA checks just about everything else.
00:43 These agencies inspect production lines and plants and test products to confirm that they're
00:47 okay to eat.
00:49 Companies can also conduct their own food safety inspections.
00:52 It's in their interest to catch a bad product before it's out on store shelves.
00:57 But all these safety checks are still not enough to keep faulty food off our plates.
01:02 And occasionally customers end up with wood chips in their ice cream or a dead bat in
01:08 their salad.
01:09 Yum.
01:10 There are many reasons why items are recalled.
01:13 Food can be contaminated by a pathogen.
01:15 For example, this year Walmart removed 16,000 pounds of ground beef, suspecting traces of
01:22 E. coli.
01:23 An item can also be removed if it has foreign objects in it.
01:27 At the beginning of this year, Trader Joe's recalled its chicken pilaf after customers
01:32 reported finding rocks in it.
01:34 And in April, Trader Joe's discarded over 61,000 pounds of soup dumplings, which are
01:39 very good, I've had them, because someone said they found plastic in the item.
01:43 But one of the most common reasons for recalls is failing to list allergens, such as tree
01:48 nuts and wheat, soy, milk, on the packaging.
01:52 It's a major issue because for people with food allergies, it can kill them.
01:56 A woman died at the start of this year after she ate mislabeled cookies containing peanuts.
02:01 Once a product complaint is launched, the government investigates it and determines
02:05 whether or not the food should be recalled.
02:08 It's not an easy decision to make and the FDA's investigation can take months.
02:12 When an item is deemed unsafe, the recall is often voluntarily issued by the company
02:17 that made or distributed the product.
02:19 But if the manufacturer refuses to do anything, then the government can take legal action.
02:24 The FDA has shut down companies that don't comply.
02:27 In 2012, it closed the biggest peanut butter plant in the U.S., Sunland Inc., after its
02:32 products were linked to a salmonella outbreak.
02:35 It made 41 people sick across 20 states.
02:38 And that's a small number compared to another outbreak of salmonella in peanut butter in
02:42 2009 that resulted in 9 deaths and 700 illnesses.
02:47 Whether a recall is mandated by the government or voluntarily done by the manufacturer, the
02:52 next step in the process are to contact the press, warn the public, and reach out to stores
02:57 to remove the item.
02:58 But as you can imagine, the whole process is costly.
03:02 Manufacturers have to pay stores for each product removed.
03:05 It can set them back tens of millions of dollars.
03:08 Some companies can go bankrupt, like Sunland did in 2013.
03:12 That's why manufacturers purchase recall insurance.
03:15 But insurance doesn't save companies from bad publicity, because nobody wants to buy
03:20 from a contaminated manufacturer.
03:23 So why have food recalls spiked in recent years?
03:26 First off, the origin point of our food supply chain has gotten farther and farther away.
03:31 In fact, roughly three-quarters of our fruits and nearly half our vegetables are expected
03:36 to come from outside the U.S. by 2027.
03:39 This makes it harder for companies to trace contaminants because they often don't know
03:43 the exact source of the food.
03:45 We also have to consider that production operations are getting bigger.
03:49 Mega factory farms house hundreds of thousands and sometimes even millions of birds.
03:55 And the U.S. is farming nearly twice as many animals for food as it did 35 years ago.
04:00 The more animals you have in a facility, the more likely it is for them to spread disease.
04:06 But is the government doing enough to protect shoppers from these contaminated products?
04:10 A Politico investigation found that regulating food is simply not a high enough priority
04:15 at the FDA, which also oversees drugs and medical products.
04:19 Past reports have said that the FDA's food division is understaffed and underfunded.
04:24 And that's a problem because foodborne diseases can have some very real consequences.
04:30 In 2022, two babies died and four were hospitalized after drinking contaminated infant formula.
04:37 And it took the FDA and the formula maker five months after the first hospitalization
04:41 to recall the product.
04:43 FDA inspections are down, too.
04:45 The agency inspects production lines and plants at least once every three to five years.
04:50 So consumers and stores are often the ones reporting on safe food rather than inspectors
04:55 catching it before it hits the shelves.
04:58 But there are ways you can better protect yourself from eating contaminated foods.
05:02 Be aware of where your food comes from.
05:05 And whatever you buy, follow the four steps to food safety.
05:09 Clean, separate, cook, and chill.
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