The total number of indivually packaged items recalled under the authority of the FDA increased by 700 percent in 2022 compared to 2021, reports Food Safety News. A recently released report from Sedgwick confirmed the findings using FDA and USDA data.
Despite the large increase in unit recalls, the number of food recalls by product only increased by 2.2 percent between 2021 and 2022.
This unit recall increase is due in part to the contaminated infant formula crisis in 2022 that affected many families. The event was linked to two deaths.
“While it was not the largest recall by volume, it had lasting repercussions on the supply of formula for months and led to calls for reform in the industry and within the FDA itself. The bacteria that led to the recall of 14.89 million units of infant formula and the closing of major production facilities had been reported on eight separate instances between 2019-2022 at one of the facilities,” said the report.
The report also found that roughly 43.5 percent of all food recalls were due to undeclared allergens in a product. This has remained the leading cause of FDA recalls for the last five years. Full Story
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