The number of food recalls reported by the US Food and Drug Administration has fallen in recent years: about 1,500 last year, one of the lowest totals of the past decade, and about 950 through mid-September this year, according to federal data cited in a report by Investigate Midwest, republished by States Newsroom outlets and Successful Farming.

Individual outbreaks can still be severe. This year thousands of people fell ill after eating lettuce contaminated with cyclospora, a parasite that causes severe diarrhoea, traced to Taylor Farms, a Mexican operation that supplies Taco Bell, Walmart and Costco. More than 20 states were affected. According to the Associated Press, the FDA had not inspected the farm since 2019, foreign food-site inspections have fallen by about 35 percent since then, and it took four weeks to get inspectors into Mexico once the source was known.

The report says the administration has not cut FDA food safety inspectors but did dismiss staff who arranged inspectors' travel, and that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped tracking six pathogens, including cyclospora, in its FoodNet early-warning system last year; the CDC says other systems do the same job.

It also recalls the 2024 Listeria outbreak linked to Boar's Head deli meat, which killed at least 10 people after USDA inspectors had documented mould and flies at a processing plant.

Photo: Kleomarlo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Source: Successful Farming