It’s hard to believe that I have been blogging for Meatingplace for more than 10 years.

I still remember the warm summer day in 2010, when Janie Gabbett invited me to lunch at a quaint little restaurant in northern Chicago, to chat about her vision for a series of weekly meat industry blogs. I gladly accepted. At that point in my career, I had already been representing food companies as a food safety lawyer for over a decade, and was excited to share my experiences. And, share we did: To date, we have penned a total of 230 blogs for Meatingplace. Meatingplace has become a fabric of my existence.

In addition to writing bi-monthly for this wonderful publication, we also track food product recalls every day. I’ll admit that, when it comes to recalls, I am a nerd. But, it’s fun and useful to watch recalls unfold, and learn from the facts and circumstances of each event. It makes me a better lawyer, consultant, consumer and writer. It also gives me interesting content to blog about.

So, this morning, let’s embark upon an exciting journey and explore the last 20 years of food product recalls. As we do so, the first thing that jumps out is that the reasons for recalls can vary wildly, involving issues which range from the unavoidable presence of pathogens to the very avoidable presence of diesel fuel or golf balls in food products.

Between January 1, 2000 and the date of this writing, there have been a total of 9,277 recalls of food products. This represents a total of 7,495 FDA-regulated products and 2,866 USDA-regulated products. There have been 8,998 recalls of human food products and 1,782 recalls of pet food products.

Of the total recalls, 4,412 have been classified by USDA or FDA as Class I, 2,866 have been classified as Class II, 590 have been classified as Class III, and a whopping 1,357 have never been publicly classified. As a general rule, a Class I Recall involves a situation where there is a “reasonable probability” that the use of the product will cause “serious adverse health consequences,” a Class II Recall involves a situation where “the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote,” and a Class III Recall involves a situation where adverse health consequences are “not likely.”

Of the nearly 10,000 recalls over the last two decades, 3,534 have been caused by pathogens. Of those, Salmonella takes the lead, responsible for 1,686 recalls. Listeria has been responsible for 1,222, and various strains of pathogenic E. coli have been responsible for 402. The remaining recalls involve a wide range of more novel pathogens, including Clostridium botulinum, Cyclospora, Staphylococcus aureus, Norovirus, Bacillus cereus and Cronobacter sakazakii, to name a few.

Over the last 20 years, the “Big Eight” allergens have been responsible for 3,950 recalls. Milk takes the lead with 1,144 recalls, followed by soy, with 614 recalls, and wheat with 566. There were 792 additional recalls for the presences of other undeclared allergens and/or ingredients, including coconut, sesame seeds, artificial colors or flavors (i.e., yellow #5, Blue #1, Red #3, Amaranth, or Ponceau 4R), sodium bisulfite and potassium sorbate.

Foreign materials also remain quite prominent, causing 732 recalls over the last 2 decades. The majority, 447, have been caused by plastic, followed closely by metal (239) and glass (89).

There have also been a wide range of recalls involving the more “unexpected.” In 2005, for instance, I helped a client with a recall involving hydraulic fluid in ground beef. In 2006, a consumer found a bird head in a can of pinto beans. In 2007, diesel fuel somehow found its way into an unhappy consumer’s seasoned turnips. And, I’ll bet everyone scrambled from the breakfast table in 2015, when a family eating a potato scramble breakfast found someone’s fingertip.

Extraneous pieces of golf balls in hash browns were the cause of another 2015 recall, which even surprised the PGA. In 2016, another fingertip was discovered in doughnuts and cinnamon rolls. The same year, human blood caused the recall of cherry taffy (all-natural coloring, I suppose). In 2017, how ironic, shredded golf balls were again discovered in shredded hash browns. And in 2019, a bird foot was discovered in someone’s chocolate cake. Oh, the drama.

As I look back on my career working with food companies, I continuously remind myself that there will always be a surprise lurking around every corner. No day, no crisis, no recall — and no Meatingplace blog — will ever be the same.

And, thank you for embarking upon this journey with me. As we look back on 20 years of recalls, I look forward to another 20 years of sharing my experiences, through blogs like this, with an industry responsible for feeding the nation.

Watch out for the unexpected, keep up the great work, and thank you for all you do!

Recalling many years of blogs and recalls

Join for free* to continue reading.