FDA food recalls by food type

18 kinds of food, classified from the product description on each of the 29,386 FDA enforcement records. Each page states which hazard dominates that category and why, before it lists anything.

A record can carry more than one category, because “chicken salad sandwich” is meat, produce and a prepared meal and all three are true. About one record in five carries a description that names no food at all, such as an item number and a case count, and those appear in no category here. They are still on their hazard, year, state and firm pages.

The classification is Krolda’s, derived from the product description. It is not an FDA field and no agency assigned it.

• Fresh produce6,919Fresh produce is the category where contamination arrives before the facility does: irrigation water, soil amendments and field workers are the routes, and nothing downstream of the farm is a kill step for a product eaten raw.
• Milk and dairy4,965Dairy recalls split between pathogen contamination in products that skipped or under-ran pasteurisation and undeclared milk in products that should never have contained it, which is the same allergen viewed from two directions.
• Snacks and confectionery4,332Snacks and confectionery recall for allergens more than for anything else, because a chocolate or a coated snack passes through shared equipment carrying milk, soy and nuts, and the label is the only control between them and the consumer.
• Bakery3,805Bakery is overwhelmingly an allergen category rather than a pathogen one: baking is a kill step, but a bakery runs many recipes down shared lines, so the failure that recalls a bakery product is usually a label or a changeover.
• Nuts and seeds3,144Nuts and seeds carry both hazards at once: they are a major allergen in their own right, and as a low-moisture food they hold Salmonella for months without supporting its growth, which is why a nut butter recall can trace to a lot pressed a year earlier.
• Sauces, dips and condiments2,884Sauces and dips sit at the intersection of the acidified foods rule and the allergen rule: an equilibrium pH above 4.6 turns a shelf-stable product into a botulism risk, and the ingredient list is long enough that an allergen is easy to lose.
• Spices and seasonings2,835Spices are a low-moisture, globally sourced, minimally processed ingredient that is added after any kill step, which is the combination that makes Salmonella in a spice lot capable of contaminating every product it was blended into.
• Fish and seafood2,417Fish and fishery products are the one food category with their own HACCP regulation in the United States, 21 CFR part 123, because the hazards are species-specific: histamine in scombroid fish, ciguatera in reef fish, and Listeria in cold-smoked products.
• Cheese2,412Cheese dominates Listeria recalls among dairy products because soft and semi-soft varieties hold enough moisture for the organism to grow at refrigeration temperature, and because most are eaten without any further cooking step.
• Prepared meals and sandwiches2,119Prepared meals concentrate every other category's hazards into one package: they are assembled from many components, handled after any cook step, sold ready to eat, and carry an ingredient list long enough to lose an allergen in.
• Grains, flour and pasta1,979Flour is a raw agricultural product that consumers treat as though it were cooked, which is the whole reason raw flour recalls exist: nothing in milling is a kill step, and the hazard only appears when somebody eats the dough.
• Dietary supplements1,831Dietary supplements are regulated under their own good manufacturing practice rule, 21 CFR part 111, and they are the only food category where the dominant recall reason is an ingredient that was never declared because it is a pharmaceutical.
• Ice cream and frozen desserts1,740Ice cream and frozen desserts are ready to eat and never cooked again, and freezing preserves Listeria rather than killing it, which is why a positive environmental sample in a frozen dessert plant becomes a recall rather than a corrective action.
• Meat and poultry1,624Most meat and poultry is regulated by USDA FSIS rather than the FDA, so a product appearing in this FDA dataset is usually a closed-faced sandwich, a product with meat as a minor ingredient, or a food FSIS does not claim.
• Beverages and juice1,544Juice is the other food with its own HACCP regulation in the United States, 21 CFR part 120, which requires a treatment achieving a 5-log reduction of the pertinent pathogen, and unpasteurised juice recalls are almost always a failure of that step or an exemption misapplied.
• Eggs903Shell eggs have their own Salmonella Enteritidis prevention regulation at 21 CFR part 118, which requires testing and refrigeration on farms above a size threshold, and they are separately one of the nine major allergens.
• Infant formula and baby food95Infant formula is the most tightly regulated food in the United States because it is frequently the only thing an infant eats, so a nutrient deviation is a hazard in a way it is not in any other product.
• Pet and animal food54Animal food is regulated under its own preventive controls rule at 21 CFR part 507, and a pet food recall is frequently a human health recall too, because Salmonella in dry pet food reaches people through the bowl and the hands rather than through eating it.