Recalls Are Rising: This Is How Food Safety Experts Decide What’s Safe to Eat

Food recalls have dominated headlines all year, with major recalls centering around common foods like lunch meat, cucumbers, and even organic carrots. Some of these recalls started with one company or product and quickly expanded to include more brands, making it hard to know which foods in these categories were safe to eat.

But public reaction to these recalls has been mixed, with some people avoiding all of a food category and others just bypassing the items specifically called out in the recall. And while food safety experts actively work to try to make our food supply safer, they face the same dilemma as the rest of us when a recall happens.

Given how common food recalls have been lately, it’s very likely that we’ll continue to deal with these in the future. Here’s how food safety experts respond when there’s a recall — and why.

Some play it safer than others

Darin Detwiler, author of the book Food Safety: Past, Present, and Predictions and a professor at Northeastern University, says he goes through a “mix of concern and frustration” when he hears of a new food recall. “Each recall represents a failure somewhere in the system — a failure of oversight, validation, communication, or perhaps all three,” he says. “I also think about the families affected, particularly those who may already be dealing with illness or loss due to the contaminated product.”

Detwiler’s 16-month-old son Riley was one of the four children who died in the devastating 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak after getting sick from another child in his daycare. “Recalls aren’t just headlines to me; They’re personal,” he says. “I understand the devastating consequences that food safety failures can bring.”

Related: Food Recalls Are Happening More Frequently Than Ever — Here’s What Food Safety Experts Want You to Know

When a new recall happens, Detwiler says he’s “more cautious about the specific product in question and the broader category it belongs to.” From there, he says that he’s “vigilant” about sourcing and handling that product. “I check labels, brands, and origin information carefully,” he says. “If the recall involves a product like lettuce, I might avoid pre-cut or mixed bags until more information becomes available.”

Detwiler notes that “many recalls start small, but grow as investigations continue,” and he may avoid an entire food category, depending on the details of the recall. “If the recall involves a systemic issue, like pathogens in a water source impacting multiple farms, I will temporarily avoid the broader category,” he says. “For example, during recalls linked to leafy greens, I might avoid salads altogether because of the high likelihood of expanded recalls.”

Detwiler says he’s not alone in this. “Many in my network of food safety leaders, legends, and heroes act on the side of caution,” he says. “I have a friend who grated and included carrots in her canning of sauces. She dumped them all out of caution due to the carrot recall.”

The type of recall matters

Food safety expert Ellen Shumaker, Ph.D., director of outreach for the Safe Plates program at North Carolina State University, says she reads the details of recalls when they happen. “There are a few types of recalls and knowing which type it is informs how I proceed,” she says. “If it is related to an undeclared allergen, I typically disregard it because no one in my family has a food allergy. This may change, however, if I know I will be preparing food for people outside my family that will include that food product.”

But if it’s a recall due to something like metal or plastic pieces, or a pathogen like Salmonella or E. coli, Shumaker says she checks to see if she has the product and gets rid of it.

While Shumaker won’t usually avoid entire food categories, like all cucumbers, she’s aware that the recalled products could show up in other things — and she’s wary of those. “I also pay close attention to the entire recall list, so I know whether the recalled products could be ingredients in another food product — for example, salad kits,” she says.

Some are simply diligent about the recall

“I have a very low risk tolerance,” says Barbara Kowalcyk, PhD, associate professor and director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. Kowalcyk’s 2-year-old son Kevin died in 2001 after experiencing kidney failure from contracting Shiga toxin-producing E. coli from contaminated meat.

In addition to reading recall notices carefully and checking the products in her pantry and refrigerator, Kowalcyk says she stays aware of the recalled foods at the grocery store. “If I see a product on the shelf that’s been recalled, I alert the management,” she says. Kowalcyk also keeps food receipts to double-check if she has a recalled product at home.

But Wade Syers, DSocSci, extension specialist for food safety at Michigan State University Extension, says that he simply reads recall notices carefully and follows the instructions. “Recalls can be very specific; I usually just avoid that recalled product,” he says.

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