Milk and dairy in FDA food recalls

4,965 of the 29,386 FDA food recall records published since 2012 involve milk or a dairy product, which is 16.9% of every food recall the agency has reported. 2,447 are Class I, and the median one ran 7 months. Data last updated 2 September 2026.

Records of 29,386

4,965

Share of all recalls

16.9%

Class I of 4,965

2,447

Reported between

2012 to 2026

Who got ill

The CDC recorded 191 foodborne outbreaks attributed to dairy between 2012 and 2023, with 2,149 reported illnesses, 374 hospitalisations and 20 deaths. That is 2.1% of the 9,038 foodborne outbreaks in the dataset, and 9.3 in every thousand of those reported ill died.

The cause recorded most often was Campylobacter jejuni, in 62 of the 185 outbreaks where a cause was recorded at all.

The setting recorded most often was a farm/dairy/agricultural setting, in 68 of the 127 where a setting was named.

What is different about these records

These records overlap heavily with ice cream and frozen desserts: 28.3% of them also fall under that category, against 5.9% across the corpus. A record can carry more than one category.

Why milk and dairy recalls the way it does

Dairy 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.

Measured across these 4,965 records, undeclared allergens is the most frequent reason at 1,364, then listeria monocytogenes at 1,355. A record can name more than one hazard, so these overlap and do not sum to 4,965.

What goes wrong

• Undeclared allergens1,364
• Listeria monocytogenes1,355
• Salmonella701
• Foreign material395
• Spoilage and mould178
• E. coli76
• Process deviation75
• Chemical contamination56
• Clostridium botulinum26
• Unapproved ingredients9
• Viral and parasitic contamination6

The regulation that governs it

§131.110 is the standard of identity for milk, and it requires that milk in final package form be pasteurised or ultrapasteurised. §1240.61 makes pasteurisation mandatory for all milk and milk products in final package form intended for direct human consumption that move interstate, which is the rule a raw-milk recall is written against. Grade A fluid milk is regulated day to day under the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance administered with the states, which is why the preventive controls compliance date for those plants was set later than for other food. The undeclared-milk half of this category is a part 101 labelling failure in some other food, not a dairy plant's.

These are the parts of 21 CFR that bear on milk or a dairy product, reproduced in full on this site because title 21 is United States public domain.

• 21 CFR Part 13120Milk and Cream
• 21 CFR Part 124015Control of Communicable Diseases
• 21 CFR Part 11761Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food

By year

Counts are by the date the FDA reported the enforcement action. That date runs behind the date a firm started a recall, so the most recent year is always partial.

Firms with the most records

A firm appears here because it reported recalls, which is what a working recall procedure produces. A high count frequently reflects a single event split across many product codes rather than many separate failures.

• Blue Bell Creameries, L.P.207
• Working Cow Homemade Inc.175
• Sunland, Incorporated164
• C & S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.158
• Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams LLC87
• Numbskull LLC87
• Koogee-Queen Anne, LLC80
• Chobani Idaho64
• Kerry Foods60
• Garden-Fresh Foods, Inc.59
• Ashers Chocolates/Lewistown, Inc.56
• Giant Eagle50

Where the recalling firms are

The state is the location of the recalling firm, not where the product was sold. Distribution is recorded separately on each record.

• California583
• Washington456
• Texas342
• Pennsylvania315
• Ohio312
• Florida298
• Wisconsin255
• New York240
• Massachusetts231
• Oregon199
• New Mexico180
• Maryland133

Most recently reported

Questions

How many FDA recalls involve milk or a dairy product?

4,965 of the 29,386 FDA food recall records published since 2012 involve milk or a dairy product, which is 16.9% of all of them. 2,447 are Class I.

Why does milk and dairy get recalled?

Dairy 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.

What is the most common reason for a milk and dairy recall?

Undeclared allergens appears in 1,364 of the 4,965 records in this category, followed by listeria monocytogenes with 1,355. A single recall can name more than one hazard, so these counts overlap.

How long does a milk and dairy recall take?

The median recall in this category ran 7 months from the date the firm initiated it to the date the FDA terminated it. Termination means the agency judged that all reasonable effort had been made under 21 CFR 7.55; it does not mean no product remained in circulation.

All FDA food recall data