Product category · Updated Aug 19, 2026

Food recalls

Name: Food Recalls
Creator: PlainRecalls
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Food safety recalls including contamination, mislabeling, and undeclared allergens

Total recalls: 25,513
Top agency: FDA Food
Years covered: 2000–2026

Compiled from official public sources by the publisher. · Updated September 2026

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Food ranks #2 of 12 among PlainRecalls categories by recall count (25,513 notices, 24.4% of the archive); 46% of graded records are high-severity.

The FDA, CPSC, USDA FSIS and NHTSA have published 25,513 food recalls between 2000 and 2026 - roughly 24.4% of the 104,423-record archive. Among 12 product categories, that is #2 of 12. Of the 25,513 records graded for severity, 46% are high-severity. Most are issued by FDA Food. Counts reflect market size and reporting activity, not a product's inherent danger.

25,513 total recalls
#2 of 12 among categories
46% graded high-severity
FDA Food top agency

Category snapshot

According to PlainRecalls' category ranking (distinct recall events, same sort as /category), Food is #2 of 12 (2nd of 12) with 25,513 recalls, about 24.4% of the 104,423-record federal archive, with 11,676 graded high-severity, most issued by FDA Food.

25,513
total recalls: #2 of 12
category rank by events: 46%
graded high-severity: FDA Food
top issuing agency

Where Food sits among all 12 categories

Distinct recall-event inventory across every PlainRecalls product category. Food is marked; archive size reflects reporting volume, not inherent product danger.

Food vs all categories by recall count

Where this category's archive sits among every tracked product class

25,513 2nd of 12 higher than 10 of 12 categories

Categories, banded by distinct recall-event inventory

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more categories. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source FDA · CPSC · USDA FSIS · NHTSA federal recall filings · 2026-09-24

Do more recalls mean more Class I danger?

Food sits at the 86th percentile of category volume (25,513 recalls) and the 86th percentile of Class I rate (46.3% of agency-classified notices) among 7 categories with enough classified rows to measure, those two ranks are not interchangeable.

Each point is a product category plotted by total recalls (x) and Class I share of agency-classified notices (y). Crosshairs mark the within-sample medians (4,017 recalls · 15.7% Class I). Rate uses only rows with an agency Class I/II/III label, CPSC/NHTSA blanks stay out of the denominator. Medical Devices is the clearest volume-without-Class-I-density example in this release. Source: FDA, CPSC, USDA FSIS & NHTSA public recall data as of 2026-09-24.

Read the chart, every category as text

Percentiles are within this release's classified-enough category sample. Class I % uses only agency-classified notices.

Category	Recalls	Vol %ile	Classified	Class I	Class I %	Rate %ile
Medical Devices	41,070	100	40,763	3,653	9%	14
Food	25,513	86	25,222	11,676	46.3%	86
Drugs & Medications	14,473	71	14,417	1,508	10.5%	29
Children & Baby Products	4,017	57	2,483	352	14.2%	43
Dietary Supplements	2,018	43	1,993	466	23.4%	71
Meat & Poultry	1,672	29	1,672	1,145	68.5%	100
Cosmetics & Personal Care	1,388	14	1,289	203	15.7%	57

High severity

11,676
Moderate

12,535
Lower severity

1,302

FDA Food

25,067
CPSC

291
FDA Drug

155

Counts reflect market size and reporting activity, not inherent danger, we do not rank products by risk from raw recall volume.