American consumers can't ignore the recent series of food recalls. Over the past few months, an uptick in recalls of food products has been circulating news sites, grocery stores, and home refrigerators. From , , and cheeses to a to , American food products have been increasingly infecting customers; predicating a series of product recalls.
As in other industries, recalls in the food industry are common — but not at this level. Darin Detwiler, a food safety expert and professor at Northeastern University, reported food-related recalls rose by 20% between 2020 and 2023 (via ). Evidently, the trend has not ended — nor subsided — this year.
Detwiler attributes the increase in recalls to a combination of working factors. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is undergoing a shift in organization and attempting to streamline its processes of assessing and ensuring food safety and this reworking of the FDA may be causing temporary mishaps in its workflow. Another contributing factor is that the food industry is still grappling with the wake of COVID-19, when manufacturers loosened their safety regulations.
Detwiler said these factors' simultaneous effects on the food industry has caused the recalls and unveiled areas for improvement. "Together, these elements have led to a surge in recalls," he said. "While it's unclear if one particular issue is driving the trend, the combination suggests that there are vulnerabilities within the food regulatory system that need to be addre.
