New Report Reveals More Americans Got Sick, Died From Recalled Food in 2024 Here's how to stay safe
A new report showed that total food recalls decreased slightly from 2023 to 2024, but hospitalizations and deaths from these products doubled
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- In 2024, total food recalls decreased slightly from 2023, but hospitalizations and deaths from these products doubled, a new report found.
- Undeclared allergens accounted for the most food recalls, followed by Listeria and Salmonella contamination.
- To protect yourself, experts recommended following recall alerts, avoiding high-risk foods, and purchasing products from trusted brands.
It’s been more than a century since the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act, which aimed to ensure the sanitary preparation of food. Since then, food safety has become something people often take for granted. Most of us assume that the food we buy at the store, cook at home, and eat at restaurants won’t make us sick.
But 2024 saw a disturbing trend: Hospitalizations and deaths from contaminated food doubled from the year prior. The biggest culprits were products later pulled from shelves due to concerns about Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli. Recalls stemming from these pathogens increased by 41% from 2023 to 2024.
Those are some of the key findings of a new report recently released by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), which dug into which products were recalled last year, the reasons why, and the seriousness of any associated outbreaks.
The results highlight the need for food safety improvements, Stanton Cope, consumer watchdog associate at PIRG and coauthor of the report, told Health. “What we should take away from this increase [in hospitalizations] is that we can all do more as consumers, regulators, and companies to protect people from foodborne illness,” he said.
Fewer Total Recalls
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) are responsible for issuing food and beverage recalls of domestic and imported products.
The FDA regulates approximately 77% of the nation’s food supply, including produce, pet food, spices, and snacks, while the USDA oversees meat, poultry, and some fish and egg products. Both agencies regulate dairy.
Last year, the FDA announced 241 recalls, while the USDA announced 55. The total—296—is a 5% decrease from 2023.
But those numbers only tell part of the story. “The number of recalls indicates only the number of specific products that regulators or companies identified as risky in a given year, either because of testing, on-site inspections, illnesses, or other reasons,” according to the report. “An increase or decrease could point to more or fewer inspections or more or fewer people going to the doctor.”
What Was Recalled and Why
Cope said that fresh produce and uncooked and undercooked meats were among the most commonly recalled products.
Recalled products involved everyday items like cucumbers, basil, organic carrots, cinnamon, and eggs.
High-profile brands were also implicated. This included Boar’s Head deli meats, which were contaminated with Listeria, leading to over 100 illnesses and the deaths of 10 people, the highest amount of recall-associated deaths. Following the recall, reports revealed that Boar’s Head had a history of safety violations.
“A Boar’s Head plant now linked to the Listeria outbreak had 69 instances of noncompliance flagged in the year before the recall. It was still producing meat,” Cope said.
Another notable recall included McDonald’s Quarter Pounders, which were served with slivers of onions contaminated with E. coli. The contamination led to 34 hospitalizations and one death.
Last year, a massive Listeria-related recall of frozen waffles and pancakes involving more than 40 brands and 240 different products also made waves.
Undeclared allergens accounted for the most significant proportion of food recalls: 34%.
“In second and third place, respectively, Listeria and Salmonella contamination,” Cope said. “Other recalls happened because of foreign materials, E. coli, yellow oleander, and other contaminants.”
More Illnesses, Hospitalizations, and Deaths
The report noted that 1,392 people got sick because of contaminated food last year—274 more than in 2023.
More people became seriously ill in 2024, causing the number of hospitalizations to more than double, from 230 to 487. The number of deaths also doubled, from eight in 2023 to 19 in 2024.
Cope said there are several reasons why illness may have been more severe in 2024. For instance, food could have been contaminated with higher concentrations of bacteria, causing more extreme illness. There also could have been more of a lag between when people get sick and a product being recalled. Or perhaps people didn’t find out about recalls in as timely a fashion, allowing more time for them to eat the contaminated food.
What the Government Is Doing to Keep Food Safe
With the resignation of Jim Jones, the director of the FDA’s food division, and the firing of FDA inspectors as part of the Trump administration’s efforts, it’s uncertain what food safety initiatives will be actionable at the federal level, Bryan Quoc Le, PhD, a food scientist, food industry consultant, and author of “150 Food Science Questions Answered: Cook Smarter, Cook Better,” told Health.
The Associated Press has reported that “nearly 90” staffers from the FDA’s food safety division were terminated last week. However, this week, the FDA offered at least 10 employees “responsible for reviewing the safety of new ingredients” their jobs back.
As it stands, the implementation of the 2010 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), “designed to shift our food system from a reactive model to a preventive one,” is in its infancy, said Darin Detwiler, PhD, food policy and corporate social responsibility professor at Northeastern University and author of “Food Safety: Past, Present, and Predictions.”
“We continue to see failure after failure in protecting consumers from preventable contamination,” Detwiler told Health. “Recalls remain slow. Oversight remains fragmented. Accountability remains elusive.”
Cope hopes that “the FDA and USDA will revamp their alert processes and recall notices so consumers can be notified about recalls faster and notified only about the recalls that may affect them, such as a peanut allergy or for dog food,” he said.
At the same time, elements of the FSMA that require food manufacturers to keep more detailed records are set to go into effect within a year, and companies will need to comply, Le said. “The hope here is that some safeguards will remain, but again, without the human power to implement some of these laws, it remains to be seen how much teeth they will have,” he noted.
How to Avoid Contaminated Foods
Staying informed about food recall announcements is the first step toward avoiding contaminated foods. One option is signing up for FDA, USDA, or Foodsafety.gov recall alerts. Alternatively, PIRG recommends using the free Food Recalls & Alerts phone app (available on Apple and Android) by SmartAddress, Inc. It sends FDA, USDA, and pet food recall notifications directly to your phone.
Next, try to avoid high-risk foods that are more likely to get you sick. These include undercooked or raw meat, poultry, fish, sprouts, raw milk, raw green onions, and unpasteurized apple juice, said Le. Along the same lines, Detwiler suggests being skeptical of foods prone to recalls, like raw dairy, bagged leafy greens, pre-cut fruit, and deli meats.
Additionally, Le recommends buying foods from reputable brands and suppliers, as these food companies have long developed the technology, processes, and departments to oversee food safety within their production. “This isn’t a foolproof way to reduce the probability of eating tainted food, but many of these companies have built their reputation on quality and safe foods,” he said.
Finally, Detwiler said that consumers must push for stronger food safety regulations and demand accountability from the food industry. “Food safety is not a privilege—it’s a right,” he said. “But until regulatory agencies receive the leadership, funding, and authority they need to protect public health, we will continue to see preventable outbreaks and deaths.”
This story originally appeared on: Health News - Author:Elizabeth Yuko, PhD
