What Happened to America’s Meat Recalls?

This story was originally published on Investigate Midwest.

Kraft Heinz recently distributed more than 367,000 pounds of turkey bacon that may be contaminated with listeria.

On July 2, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service announced a recall of three Kraft Heinz products under the Oscar Mayer brand, produced between April 24 and June 11. The company had shipped the items nationwide and abroad to the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong.

FSIS categorizes listeria contamination as Class I, a recall of products that could cause serious health consequences or death. Listeriosis, the possible resulting infection, can lead to fevers, muscle aches, fatigue, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and seizures.

Officials said no adverse reactions have been linked to Kraft Heinz’ recalled turkey bacon. But that isn’t always the outcome.

In 2024, hospitalizations and deaths from contaminated food more than doubled from the previous year, according to Food Safety Net Services. Pathogens like listeria and salmonella were the top causes of FSIS and Food and Drug Administration recalls, accounting for 39% of all 2024 cases.

For over a century, FSIS has overseen recalls like this — cases of adulteration or misbranding involving everything from mixed meats to individual species in the meat, poultry and egg industry.

But recall numbers haven’t been consistent across species and years, especially within the past decade, data shows.

“The number of recalls is likely to fluctuate over any given period of time, due to the number of variables that affect whether a recall is necessary to remove adulterated or misbranded product from commerce,” a USDA spokesperson said in a statement to Investigate Midwest.

When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the nation to a standstill in 2020, FSIS recalls sank to a historic low. Reasons for this dip were unclear, according to a 2021 NPR article. Some experts speculated to NPR at the time that the low numbers indicated a safer food supply, while others worried it meant more risks were going unnoticed. An FSIS spokesperson told NPR the drop was because fewer cases were reported to the agency that year.

In the years since COVID, America has largely bounced back, and FSIS recalls are slowly following suit.

According to agency data, the recall numbers for major species like pork, beef and poultry are creeping upward. Pork products, for example, plummeted from 19 recalls in 2019 to four cases in 2020 — a 79% decline. In the years following, the species has seen an almost-linear increase, with nine pork recalls in 2021, 14 in 2022 and 18 in 2023.

“Over the last few years, FSIS has pushed for more accountability from industry to produce safe and wholesome products,” the USDA spokesperson said.

While recent recall numbers are trending upward, they remain far below pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, FSIS reported 144 recalls. That number plunged to 31 in 2020 and has only partly recovered, reaching 65 in 2023 — less than half of the 2019 total.

Food Safety Inspection Service continues to request recalls for products deemed adulterated or misbranded. Less than a week before the Kraft Heinz recall, FSIS announced yet another major recall of more than 143,000 pounds of bologna due to misbranding. Seven bologna products, produced by Gaiser’s European Style Provisions, Inc. between March 20 and June 20, contained undeclared pork, beef or chicken ingredients.

The latest recalls come during a tumultuous time for food safety policy. In March, the Trump administration eliminated two food safety committees: the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection and the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods.

“The termination of these two important advisory committees is very alarming and should serve as a warning to consumers that food safety will not be a priority at USDA in the foreseeable future,” Brian Ronholm, food policy director at Consumer Reports, told Meat+Poultry in March.

This article first appeared on Investigate Midwest and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.