Recent recalls raise concerns about food safety

Experts credit better regulation and technology

By VIVIAN LA

Chicago Tribune (TNS)

CHICAGO — Chicago Heights resident Stephanie Petersen was concerned by how many food recalls she saw daily on the Food and Drug Administration website.

“There was, like, (multiple) recalls every single day. And a lot of salmonella, listeria, a lot of different things,” Petersen said. “I was like, what is going on? It’s so many.”

Petersen, an occupational therapy student who posts regularly on social media about health, started creating TikTok videos in August where she updates followers on the latest recalls. She includes information like dates, severity, screenshots from the FDA website and news sources.

“I’m just doing it to help and keep everybody safe,” Petersen said. “All I say is just, you know, stay on top of the recalls.”

Recent food recalls have raised concerns among consumers about food safety and regulation. But experts said the issue is complicated due to factors like increased regulation, better technology and more public awareness.

“There’s no crystal ball that will ever keep us (at) 100 percent protection just because of the nature of food that we eat and where it’s coming from,” said Brian Schaneberg, executive director of the Institute for Food Safety and Health at Illinois Tech.

Misconceptions about the recall process The FDA regulates about 78 percent of the U.S. food supply except for meat, poultry and some fish products, which are overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Food recalls are issued after companies find problems, consumers report health issues or regulators conduct testing.

According to FDA data, nearly 1,200 food products have been recalled so far in 2024. Two hundred products were recalled in August, the highest monthly total this year. But 2024’s total recalls so far are lower than last year, which saw just over 2,000 recalls, the highest since 2017.

Overall, average annual recalls for the last four years are lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. More safety measures led to fewer inspections and less food production post-pandemic, Schaneberg said.

But not every recall is harmful. The FDA classifies recalls from Class III, unlikely to cause health problems, to the most serious Class I, which can lead to death. The majority of August recalls were Class I, but there were only 20 in September. Due to the severity, these recalls usually receive a lot of media attention.

For example, the deli company Boar’s Head recalled about 7 million pounds of meat and poultry products this summer after strains of listeria were found in its products. Ten people have died, according to the Centers for Disease Control, including one death in Illinois.

More recently, the Wisconsin- based company Milo’s Poultry Farms recalled certain eggs sold in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin due to salmonella. The CDC says 65 people have gotten sick, with 11 cases in Illinois.

As the most serious type of recall, there are very specific steps when it comes to communication from both the company and the FDA. But it becomes trickier with lower class, voluntary recalls, which is when companies remove products before they’re legally required by regulatory agencies.

“You’ll see that in the language where the company may say, ‘We are choosing to pull this product from the market, even though we do not have data to say it’s unsafe,’” Schaneberg said. This gray area is where the perception of increasing recalls could come from. “Consumers don’t necessarily know the difference and that’s hard.”

An increasing number of food recalls are because products aren’t what was stated on the package, like with undisclosed allergens such as milk or wheat. Allergens accounted for nearly half of recalls in 2023, according to a report from the Public Interest Research Group. Pathogens like salmonella or listeria are behind a quarter of last year’s recalls.

The uptick in allergen-related recalls last year 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, required labeling sesame on all packaged foods regulated by the FDA.

So while there is a potential increase in recalls, it isn’t necessarily because more people are getting sick, Schaneberg said. More recalls may be due to a product not having the right information for consumers to make decisions, like allergens information.

“You’re seeing things hit the media in part now because the U.S. made the decision to improve its food safety practices,” he said.

Improving food systems

Food recalls might also be increasing due to better regulatory standards, said Sara Bratager, a food safety and traceability scientist with the Institute of Food Technologists. In 2011, federal lawmakers passed the Food Safety Modernization Act, which resulted in many of the technological and screening improvements seen in today’s food regulatory system By 2026, for example, any company that handles products on the Food Traceability List must keep specific records on movement throughout the supply chain. Foods on this list are considered “high risk” for foodborne illness, like some fresh produce, cheese and nut butters. Such records make it easier to trace a product in the event of a recall.

“It’s hard to get to zero (recalls). Trying to get there means advancing your preventative measure, your investigative capabilities. And as soon as you get better at investigating, you find more stuff,” Bratager said. As products that weren’t as easily traceable in previous years are scrutinized, problems pop up.

Recalls are indicative of the system working as it should, not systemic failure, she said.

“Mistakes are always going to happen,” Bratager said. “The fact that we have these systems to identify it and recall it and get it off the shelves is a good thing. I would be really concerned if I was living somewhere where I never saw any recall.”

And as people grow more aware of foodborne illness or issues with products, they’re more likely to report symptoms to a doctor or alert authorities.

The CDC estimates that about 48 million people get sick from foodborne illnesses each year. The agency also investigates outbreaks of disease, defined as when two or more people get sick from eating the same contaminated food. The most recent available data from the CDC shows that 79 multistate outbreaks were investigated in 2022. This was a slight increase from 2021 and a return to the numbers before the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of Oct. 9, the CDC is investigating 18 multistate outbreaks of salmonella, one outbreak of E. coli and four outbreaks of listeria. Both outbreaks from Boar’s Head and Milo’s Poultry Farm were still under investigation by the CDC and

FDA.

Impact on food organizations

At the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which distributes food to local pantries and organizations, practice drills are conducted twice a year to simulate a recall.

Man-Yee Lee, spokesperson for the depository, said drills are important, but their approach to recalls is to be preventive rather than reactive. That means asking the food partners they work with – corporations, vendors, companies – for audited reports on safety. Lee said they haven’t had a recall problem since 2022 when some baby formula was recalled. Food banks have their own robust systems for weeding out recalled items and the majority of them are caught earlier in the supply chain.

But the effects of a wide-reaching recall still trickle down to pantries in ways that don’t involve pulling recalled products from shelves.

The ongoing salmonella outbreak in eggs is significantly affecting Common Pantry in North Center. In her seven years working at the pantry, Executive Director Margaret O’Conor doesn’t think there’s been a marked increase in food recalls. However, when there are issues with staple, protein-rich items like eggs, she said the effects are much more problematic compared with grocery stores, which have flexibility with other vendors.

“Recalls affect us more because it’s a product that we would’ve been receiving, then that product goes away,” O’Conor said. “We don’t necessarily have the budget to go out and replace that product with an unrecalled brand. And so folks go without.

She said the staff have had to be creative, whether that’s splitting cartons in half to give to families or considering buying eggs in bulk and using reusable cartons. The organization has already gone over budget for the year to get the eggs they need. But O’Conor takes pride in knowing that the pantry does not serve unsafe food. Food safety comes down to communication and trust, she said.

While there might be more recalls, Lee said “it’s an indication that systems in place are really doing what they’re supposed to do.” Her advice to consumers is to stay up to date with the FDA’s safety alerts, which can be emailed weekly. But to also have faith in the regulatory process.

“I do feel that we should trust more that good systems are in place to prevent any contaminated food from reaching consumers,” she said.

Driver Max Perea, from the Greater Chicago Food Depository, delivers food to Common Pantry on Oct. 14. “Recalls affect us more because it’s a product that we would’ve been receiving, then that product goes away,” said Common Pantry executive director Margaret O’Conor.

Photos by Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune / TNS

Volunteer Michael Jones unpacks several boxes of eggs and places them into a refrigerator at Common Pantry, Oct. 14, after receiving a delivery from the Greater Food Depository. Common Pantry has been affected by the recent egg recall due to salmonella. They’ve been splitting cartons in half to give to families.