Are Food Recalls Actually On The Rise? Not Really.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: This is Science Friday. I’m SciFri producer Kathleen Davis. Later in the hour, is too much sitting bad for you? Plus, how blind women are being trained to detect breast cancer.

But first, it feels like there’s been an onslaught of food recalls this year. We’ve seen recalls for items like cucumbers and carrots, deli meat and smoked salmon, foods that have been contaminated with salmonella, E. coli, listeria, and more. As a consumer, it can be stressful and even scary to keep up with food recalls.

So today we’re going to break down how a food recall happens, if there are actually more recalls this year than in other years, and some food safety tips. Joining me to help us break this down is my guest, Dr. Byron Chaves, food scientist and associate professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Welcome to Science Friday.

BYRON CHAVES: Thanks. Happy to be here.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: So first off, is there actually a giant wave of food recalls this year?

BYRON CHAVES: That’s a great question that we’ve been getting pretty frequently these days. And I would say, no. I would argue that if we look at the data, that we haven’t really seen a spike in food recalls compared to previous years, if we statistically compare the data. I think that recently, what’s been happening is that the recalls that we’ve had have been very heavily publicized. And so it feels like there’s a lot more of those recalls happening.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: So walk me through how a food recall happens. What is the first step?

BYRON CHAVES: Yeah, totally. So typically, either the company that produces the food or a state or federal agency discovers that there’s something wrong, right? It could be that the product is directly contaminated, or there is suspicion that the product might be contaminated.

And so at that point, companies will work directly with state and federal agencies to determine what is the level or the class of recall that has to happen. And that is based on the risk associated with the potential hazard. And then those federal and state agencies will do some advertising.

And that is when we see things in the news. We hear things on the radio. It goes on social media, just to warn the consumers that that product should not be consumed. But it typically starts with testing something or reviewing records and identifying that something may have gone wrong.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: And so when we’re actually talking about contaminations, are we talking about a contamination on the surface of the food or grown into the food or both?

BYRON CHAVES: It could be any. It could be that some contamination is typically external, so if we think about whole fruits and vegetables– so we typically see external contamination. But if we had something like fresh-cut fruit, then, of course, that contamination is already in the flesh. And so it’s a little different.

Think about meat products that have been tenderized versus meat that has not been tenderized. So in the tenderized version, we might have pathogens inside of the tissue. But in the intact version, the pathogens would only be on the surface. So it could be a number of different things.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: OK, so let’s get into how these recalls actually work. So let’s say that I eat a carrot that’s coated in E. coli here in New York. And then someone else does the same in Alaska, and we both get sick. How do federal agencies connect those illnesses back to a common product?

BYRON CHAVES: Yeah, that’s a great question. And that’s where the epidemiological system really comes in. So the first thing that would have to happen, really, is that the two people that got sick actually get sick enough that they seek medical attention. And that is one of the reasons why so many of these instances of foodborne illness are never captured, because we might get sick, but not severely enough that we have to go to the doctor.

And so if two people go to the doctor because of a foodborne illness, and they get tested, and that microbe is identified, then that goes into a national database, and then we can start seeing clusters of people that get sick. And that is where federal agencies like the CDC will come in and try to put two and two together. And we start asking people, what did you eat? And that is how federal agencies will put those two cases together and then potentially declare an outbreak. But it really starts with seeking medical attention.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: So one thing I was surprised to learn was that about half of the cases of foodborne illness comes from tainted produce. I would have thought that the majority would be from things like meat and eggs. So why is produce so germy?

BYRON CHAVES: Yeah, great point. And so we do see that the ecology of foodborne pathogens changes over time. And so we used to have a lot of issues with foods of animal origin. So you mentioned meat and poultry and eggs. And a lot of those problems have switched to minimally processed foods.

And so we typically want things like fresh produce. We want to have fruits that are maybe exotic, and we want to have them year round. And so that has put a lot of pressure in intensifying agricultural systems. And so that also has put a lot of pressure into importing food commodities, because we want to have them all year round.

Produce has become one of these things where we see a lot of issues because they do come from naturally contaminated environments. Obviously, we do a lot of things to prevent direct contamination of that food product on the farm and stuff like that with irrigation water, with biological soil amendments of animal origin, all of those things we really try. But let’s keep in mind that a lot of these foods come from natural environments that are open to wildlife, to different sources of water, and that they can become contaminated fairly easily.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: What are the most common food contaminants, and how can they affect the body?

BYRON CHAVES: Yeah, we hear about those all the time, things like salmonella, E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes. So these are big names of microbes, right? And so something that I really want to point out is that when we think about E. coli, there’s lots of different types of E. coli. And most of them actually will never cause illness, right? So we have E. coli in our gastrointestinal tracts. So a lot of those types of E. coli are the good ones.

But we have a group of E. coli’s that are highly pathogenic. And so that is when we see things like Shiga toxin producing E. coli that are really scary names. So think about Salmonella, pathogenic E. coli, and Listeria monocytogenes as the big ones. They can cause anything from diarrhea and fever and sometimes vomiting to some very serious illnesses. So pathogenic E. coli, the one that we saw in the onion outbreak associated with McDonald’s–

KATHLEEN DAVIS: Mm-hmm.

BYRON CHAVES: Right? So that one, it’s particularly dangerous. That one can cause bloody diarrhea, kidney failure, can make you go on dialysis the rest of your life. You could potentially need a kidney transplant. So those microbes are extremely serious.

There are others that are really serious only for specific groups of population, such as Listeria monocytogenes is particularly problematic for pregnant women, for immunocompromised individuals. But for a healthy adult, it might just be fever or feeling a little unwell.

Same with salmonella. If we get salmonella, we’ll have probably a couple of days that you’re going to have diarrhea, potentially vomiting, fever, but it’s going to be self-limiting. And so let’s keep in mind that while all of these microbes can be pathogenic, meaning that they can cause illness, that the severity will largely depend on the immunological status of the host. And so that is when we make differentiations between a healthy adult versus somebody that’s immunocompromised versus children and the elderly, as well as pregnant women.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: And I would assume that these recalls can be really expensive for companies. So I’m assuming that they’re pretty careful about contamination.

BYRON CHAVES: Yes. Something that we really need to keep in mind is that companies don’t want this to happen, right? Companies don’t want to be associated with that really bad PR. They don’t want to have to spend money recalling products.

And so they do go through programs where they do mock recalls, so that they can determine internally what is the percentage of their product that is currently in the market that they can recover if they had to recall a food product. And so they go through these exercises. They work very closely with federal agencies, with state agencies.

And like you mentioned, recalls can be very expensive. It is estimated that it can be dependent on the depth of the recall, anywhere from $100,000 to $10 million. So if you have products that are everywhere in the country, maybe placed in markets abroad, you still have to take care of those. And so the liability is really high.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: How good would you say the USDA and the FDA are at catching contaminated foods?

BYRON CHAVES: They’re very good. I would argue that they are very, very good. That doesn’t mean that there’s still a lot of opportunities for improvement. But both of those federal agencies that you mentioned are the two main food safety agencies, really, in the country. So we think about USDA for meat, poultry, and processed eggs, as well as catfish, and then for the FDA for pretty much everything else. And so they have certain capacities. And also they have certain limitations.

In the case of the FDA, for example, we have relatively new regulation that allows the FDA to mandate a recall. So they can tell a company, you must remove this product from the market. Whereas the USDA does not have congressional authority to do that. And so they can only pass voluntary recalls.

Of course, they have other mechanisms that they can apply so that companies remove products from the market. But in that case, all of the recalls end up being voluntary. It is in the best interest of the company to voluntarily recall a product, because you don’t want consumers to get sick with your product.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: So from what I can understand, these recalls can sound scary, but they’re also a sign that the food safety system is working, right?

BYRON CHAVES: Yeah. This is debatable. A lot of people, if you ask somebody else, maybe they would give you a different answer. But I would really lean towards yes. We see these recalls, and we know that the system is working, because we are able to catch contamination.

Of course, we catch contamination all throughout the food supply, from primary production, whether that’s for animals or produce, and then through transformation and processing and manufacturing and distribution, as well as at the endpoint for retailers. There’s contamination that it’s been discovered all throughout. And that is a sign that the system works, because that product never actually makes it to the pantries of the consumers.

But there is certainly a proportion of product that will always be contaminated. And that poses a risk because we live in a statistical world. We live in a system of probability. And catching contamination is a statistical process. We can only have a certain level of confidence that the food supply is safe. And while we have a very, very safe and robust food safety system, there’s always opportunities for contamination.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: So we are almost out of time here. But before we go, can you leave us with a few food safety tips? Maybe like three rules that I should follow.

BYRON CHAVES: Absolutely. The ones that we give all the time– wash your hands. That’s a typical one. You want to prevent cross-contamination. You want to make sure that foods that are hot should be hot. Foods that are cold should be cold.

And in the case of recalls, I really would say, read the labels, look at the news. I would say subscribe to federal agencies’ social media platforms. So if you think of the FDA, the CDC, the USDA, they will keep you informed. So keep an eye open and an ear open for news of products that are being recalled, so that you protect yourself and your family.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: Byron, thanks so much for joining me. This was a great conversation.

BYRON CHAVES: Awesome. Thank you for having me.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: Dr. Byron Chaves is a food scientist and associate professor at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

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