Nuts and seeds in FDA food recalls

3,144 of the 29,386 FDA food recall records published since 2012 involve nuts or seeds, which is 10.7% of every food recall the agency has reported. 1,723 are Class I, and the median one ran 7 months. Data last updated 2 September 2026.

Records of 29,386

3,144

Share of all recalls

10.7%

Class I of 3,144

1,723

Reported between

2012 to 2026

What is different about these records

The hazard that separates Nuts and seeds from the national picture is salmonella: 25% of these records name it, against 12.4% of all FDA food recalls.

These records overlap heavily with milk and dairy: 46% of them also fall under that category, against 16.9% across the corpus. A record can carry more than one category.

Recalls involving nuts or seeds are more often the serious kind: 54.8% are Class I, where the FDA judges there is a reasonable probability of serious health consequences, against 44% of all records.

Why nuts and seeds recalls the way it does

Nuts 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.

Measured across these 3,144 records, undeclared allergens is the most frequent reason at 1,087, then salmonella at 785. A record can name more than one hazard, so these overlap and do not sum to 3,144.

What goes wrong

• Undeclared allergens1,087
• Salmonella785
• Listeria monocytogenes540
• Foreign material153
• Spoilage and mould39
• Chemical contamination30
• E. coli23
• Process deviation13
• Clostridium botulinum10
• Unapproved ingredients6
• Viral and parasitic contamination6

The regulation that governs it

Nuts and seeds are under part 117 with no rule of their own, but two things shape what a plan has to control. Salmonella survives for months in a low-moisture food without growing, so the process control for a nut product is a validated kill step, roasting or pasteurisation, and the hazard analysis under §117.130 has to treat recontamination from the environment after that step as the hazard rather than growth in the product. And tree nuts and peanuts are two of the nine major food allergens, so a plant handling several kinds is running an allergen control programme under §117.135 whether or not it thinks of itself as one. §164.150 is the standard of identity for peanut butter and is about composition, not safety.

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

• 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.

• Sunland, Incorporated206
• Midwest Northern Inc66
• Ashers Chocolates/Lewistown, Inc.48
• Lipari Foods, Inc.41
• Nutrition Resource Services, Inc.36
• Treehouse Foods34
• HVF Inc. d.b.a Huson Valley Farms34
• C & S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.33
• Albertsons Companies LLC32
• Blue Bell Creameries, L.P.30
• Working Cow Homemade Inc.27
• FRESH IDEATION FOOD GROUP, LLC dba Fresh Creative Cuisine26

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.

• California453
• New Mexico218
• Ohio189
• Oregon186
• Pennsylvania181
• Texas169
• New York168
• Illinois147
• Minnesota145
• Washington145
• Michigan124
• Florida99

Most recently reported

Questions

How many FDA recalls involve nuts or seeds?

3,144 of the 29,386 FDA food recall records published since 2012 involve nuts or seeds, which is 10.7% of all of them. 1,723 are Class I.

Why does nuts and seeds get recalled?

Nuts 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.

What is the most common reason for a nuts and seeds recall?

Undeclared allergens appears in 1,087 of the 3,144 records in this category, followed by salmonella with 785. A single recall can name more than one hazard, so these counts overlap.

How long does a nuts and seeds 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