(TNS) — Chicago Heights resident Stephanie Petersen was concerned about the number of food recalls she was seeing on the Food and Drug Administration website every day.
“We’ve had (multiple) recalls every day, and there’s a lot of salmonella, listeria, and a lot of different things,” Petersen said. “I thought, ‘What’s going on? There’s so much.’
Petersen, an occupational therapy student, regularly posts about her health on social media and began making TikTok videos in August to keep her followers updated on the latest recalls. She includes information such as date, severity, and screenshots from the FDA website and news sources.
“I’m just doing it to help everyone and keep everyone safe,” Petersen said. “All I would say is stay on top of recalls.”
Recent food recalls have heightened consumer concerns about food safety and regulation. But experts said the problem was complicated by factors such as tighter regulations, improved technology and increased public awareness.
“There’s no crystal ball that keeps us 100% protected just because of the nature of the food we eat and where it comes from,” said Brian Schoenberg, executive director of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute for Food Safety and Health. There is no such thing.” .
Misconceptions about the recall process
The FDA regulates approximately 78% of the U.S. food supply, excluding meat, poultry, and some fish products, which are overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Food recalls are issued after a company discovers a problem, a consumer reports a health problem, or a regulatory agency conducts an inspection.
Approximately 1,200 food products have been recalled so far in 2024, according to FDA data. 200 products were recalled in August, the highest monthly total this year. But the total number of recalls in 2024 so far is lower than last year, when there were just over 2,000 recalls, the highest since 2017.
Overall, the average annual number of recalls over the past four years has been lower than before the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic. Tightened safety measures have resulted in less testing and less food production following the pandemic, Schoenberg said.
But not all recalls are harmful. The FDA classifies recalls from Class III, which is unlikely to cause health problems, to Class I, which is the most serious and can lead to death. The majority of August’s recalls were Class I, but there were only 20 in September. Because of their severity, these recalls typically receive a lot of media attention.
For example, deli company Boar’s Head recalled about 7 million pounds of meat and poultry products this summer after a listeria strain was detected in the products. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 10 people have died, including one in Illinois.
Most recently, Milo’s Poultry Farms, a Wisconsin-based company, recalled certain eggs sold in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin due to salmonella. According to the CDC, 65 people have become ill and 11 people in Illinois have been infected.
Because this is the most serious type of recall, there are very specific steps in communication from both the company and the FDA. But the lower class of voluntary recalls, where companies remove products before regulators legally require them to do so, are even trickier.
“You’ll see that in the language that companies use to say, ‘We’re choosing to pull this product from the market even though there’s no data that it’s unsafe,'” Schoenberg said. Ta. This gray area is where the perception that recalls are on the rise is coming from. “Consumers don’t necessarily understand the difference, and that’s difficult.”
The number of food recalls is increasing because the product is not what it says on the package, such as when it contains undisclosed allergens such as milk or wheat. According to a report by the Public Interest Research Group, nearly half of recalls in 2023 were due to allergens. Pathogens such as Salmonella and Listeria were responsible for a quarter of last year’s recalls.
Last year’s increase in allergen-related recalls can be attributed to the addition of sesame as a major food allergen. The Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research Act, which went into effect in January 2023, requires sesame seeds to be labeled on all FDA-regulated packaged foods.
So while there may be an increase in recalls, it’s not necessarily because more people are getting sick, Schoenberg said. The increase in recalls may be due to products not having adequate information, such as allergen information, for consumers to make decisions.
“What we’re seeing in the media right now is due in part to the United States’ decision to improve its food safety practices,” he said.
Improving food systems
Sara Bratager, a food safety and traceability scientist at the Institute of Food Technologists, said food recalls may also be on the rise due to improved regulatory standards. In 2011, federal lawmakers passed the Food Safety Modernization Act, which resulted in many of the technical and inspection improvements seen in today’s food regulatory system.
For example, by 2026, companies with products on the Food Traceability List will be required to keep specific records of their movements throughout the supply chain. Foods on this list are considered “high risk” for foodborne illness, including some fresh produce, cheese, and nut butters. Such records make it easier to trace the product in the event of a recall.
“It’s hard to get to zero[reminiscences]. Trying to get there means improving our preventive measures and our investigative capabilities. And as soon as we get better at investigative, we’re going to do more.” You can find it,” Bratager said. Problems emerge as products that previously could not be easily tracked come under scrutiny.
He said the recall is an indication that the system is working properly, not a failure of the system.
“Mistakes happen all the time,” Blatager said. “The fact that we have a system to identify it and retrieve it and take it off the shelves is a good thing. If you lived in a place that had never seen a recall, you’d be really concerned.”
And as people become more aware of problems with food poisoning and products, they are more likely to report symptoms to their doctor or alert authorities.
The CDC estimates that approximately 48 million people become ill from foodborne illnesses each year. The agency also investigates disease outbreaks, defined as when two or more people become ill after eating the same contaminated food. The latest data available from the CDC shows 79 multistate outbreaks were investigated in 2022. This is a slight increase from 2021 and back to pre-COVID-19 pandemic numbers.
As of October 9, the CDC is investigating 18 Salmonella outbreaks, one E. coli outbreak, and four Listeria outbreaks across multiple states. Both outbreaks at Boar’s Head and Milo poultry farms were still under investigation by the CDC and FDA.
Impact on food tissue
The Greater Chicago Food Depository, which distributes food to local food pantries and organizations, conducts recall drills twice a year.
Depository spokesperson Man Yi Lee said training was important, but the approach to recalls was preventative rather than reactive. That means requiring audited safety reports from our food partners (companies, vendors, companies). Lee said there have been no recall issues since some infant formula was recalled in 2022. Food banks have their own robust systems to eliminate recalled items, the majority of which are identified early in the supply chain.
But the effects of widespread recalls are still spilling over into the pantry in ways that don’t involve removing recalled products from shelves.
The ongoing Salmonella outbreak in eggs is having a major impact on North Center’s Common Pantry. Executive Director Margaret O’Connor has worked at the pantry for seven years and doesn’t believe there has been a noticeable increase in food recalls. But if there’s a problem with staple, protein-rich items like eggs, the impact is much more problematic than in grocery stores, which have more flexibility with other vendors, she said.
“Recalls affect us even more because it’s a product that we would have received and then that product is gone,” O’Connor said. “We don’t necessarily have the budget to replace the product with a brand that hasn’t been recalled, so people just go ahead and do nothing.
She said staff had to get creative, including breaking cartons in half to give to families and considering buying eggs in bulk and using reusable cartons. The organization has already exceeded its budget for the year to obtain the eggs it needs. But O’Connor takes pride in knowing that the pantry doesn’t offer dangerous food. Food safety is about communication and trust, she said.
While there could be more recalls, “this is an indication that the systems that are in place are actually doing what they’re supposed to do,” Lee said. Her advice for consumers is to stay up-to-date on FDA safety alerts sent weekly via email. But you also need to trust the regulatory process.
“I feel like we should have more trust that there are systems in place to ensure that contaminated food does not reach consumers,” she says.
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