In 2025, food recalls have become an increasingly prominent topic in headlines, grocery stores, and kitchen conversations across the United States. From contaminated deli meats to E. coli-tainted vegetables, the frequency and severity of recalls seem to be escalating, leaving consumers wary and regulators scrambling. According to preliminary data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), food recalls in 2024 already surged past previous years, with an 8% increase in FDA-regulated recalls alone compared to 2023. As we move deeper into 2025, early reports suggest this trend is not abating. So, what’s driving this rise in food recalls?
Is our food supply becoming less safe, or are we simply getting better at catching problems? This article delves into the multifaceted reasons behind the increase, exploring regulatory changes, industry practices, environmental factors, and technological advancements.
A Snapshot of the Problem
To understand why food recalls are on the rise in 2025, it’s worth looking back at 2024, a year that set the stage for current concerns. The Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) reported approximately 300 food recalls in 2024, linked to nearly 1,400 illnesses, 487 hospitalizations, and 19 deaths—double the hospitalizations and deaths recorded in 2023. Bacterial contamination, particularly from pathogens like Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli, accounted for a significant portion of these incidents, with 154 recalls tied to these microbes hitting a five-year high. High-profile cases, such as the Boar’s Head listeria outbreak (which claimed 10 lives) and the McDonald’s E. coli outbreak tied to onions, underscored the human cost of these failures.
Fast forward to early 2025, and the FDA has already recorded 213 food recalls between January 1 and February 28—down from 336 in the same period of 2024, but still higher than the 173 in 2023. While the total number of recalls appears to be stabilizing or slightly declining, the severity and public impact of these incidents remain elevated.
Experts argue that the rise isn’t just a statistical blip but a reflection of deeper systemic issues in the food supply chain, compounded by evolving detection methods and societal shifts.
Reason 1: A More Complex Global Supply Chain
One of the most significant drivers of rising food recalls is the increasing complexity of the global food supply chain.
In 2025, the U.S. continues to rely heavily on imported ingredients and finished goods, a trend that accelerated during the post-pandemic years. Darin Detwiler, a food safety expert and professor at Northeastern University, noted in 2024 that “our food industry is relying on way more global sourcing of ingredients, so you’re increasing the chances for issues.” This globalization means that a single contaminated batch of cinnamon from Ecuador or onions from Mexico can trigger a cascade of recalls across multiple states and brands.
The 2023 lead-contaminated applesauce incident, traced back to a processor in Ecuador, foreshadowed the challenges of 2025. As international trade grows, food travels through more hands, facilities, and countries, each a potential point of contamination. Inadequate oversight in some exporting nations, combined with stretched U.S. regulatory resources, creates gaps where pathogens or allergens can slip through. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), enacted in 2011, aimed to address these risks by imposing stricter standards on importers, but full implementation—particularly for smaller producers—remains a work in progress. Deadlines for irrigation water safety standards, for instance, were extended to April 2025 for large farms and 2027 for smaller ones, leaving room for contamination risks in the interim.
Reason 2: The Boom in Processed and Convenience Foods
Another factor fueling recalls is the American consumer’s growing appetite for processed and ready-to-eat (RTE) foods. In 2025, the demand for convenience—think pre-sliced deli meats, bagged salads, and meal kits—continues to soar, driven by busy lifestyles and inflationary pressures that make cooking from scratch less appealing. However, these products require more handling, processing, and packaging, each step introducing opportunities for contamination.
Take the Boar’s Head recall of over 7 million pounds of deli meat in 2024 as an example. Listeria thrives in the cold, moist environments of meat processing plants, and the additional steps involved in slicing and packaging RTE products amplify the risk. Similarly, pre-washed vegetables like the organic carrots recalled from Costco and Whole Foods in 2024 due to E. coli highlight how convenience can come at a cost. Experts like Thomas Gremillion from the Consumer Federation of America point to “recurring contamination issues” in processing facilities as a persistent problem, exacerbated by the sheer volume of output required to meet demand.
Reason 3: Environmental and Agricultural Pressures
Environmental factors are also playing a role in the uptick of recalls. In 2025, climate change continues to disrupt agricultural systems, with extreme weather events—floods, droughts, and heatwaves—stressing crops and livestock.
These conditions can weaken plants’ natural defenses, making them more susceptible to pathogens, or contaminate water sources used for irrigation. The McDonald’s E. coli outbreak of 2024, linked to onions grown near cattle operations in Colorado, illustrated how proximity to animal waste can taint produce. Jaydee Hanson from the Center for Food Safety explained, “Onions don’t normally get E. coli unless they’ve been exposed to the waste of an animal that’s sick.”
Moreover, the ongoing spread of H5N1 bird flu, detected in raw milk samples in California late in 2024, signals a new frontier of concern. As zoonotic diseases increasingly intersect with food production, regulators face pressure to expand testing and recall protocols, potentially driving up the number of reported incidents in 2025.
Reason 4: Enhanced Detection and Regulatory Scrutiny
Paradoxically, the rise in recalls may also reflect a food safety system that’s working better, not worse. Advances in detection technology, such as DNA sequencing and artificial intelligence, have made it easier to identify and trace outbreaks. Keith Warriner, a professor at the University of Guelph, noted in early 2025 that “we are not seeing a rise in recalls but in the number of outbreaks detected.” These tools allow public health officials to pinpoint contamination sources with unprecedented precision, often before widespread illness occurs.
The FSMA has also empowered the FDA with greater authority to oversee supply chains, leading to more proactive recalls. Companies, wary of legal and reputational risks, are issuing recalls earlier and more frequently, even for precautionary reasons. “The last thing any responsible company wants to do is kill somebody,” Hanson remarked, highlighting a shift toward risk aversion. In 2025, this heightened scrutiny is evident in the decline of undeclared allergen recalls (down from 154 in 2023 to 101 in 2024), as producers adapt to stricter labeling requirements, like those for sesame introduced in 2023.
Reason 5: Regulatory and Oversight Challenges
Despite these advancements, cracks in the regulatory framework are widening. The FDA and USDA, tasked with overseeing roughly 78% and 22% of the U.S. food supply respectively, face ongoing resource constraints. Staffing shortages, exacerbated by layoffs and leadership changes noted by Detwiler in 2024, have slowed inspection rates.
The Environmental Working Group has criticized the FDA for failing to meet congressional mandates for facility inspections, a problem compounded by a post-COVID-19 backlog. During the pandemic, inspections dropped from over 7,000 in 2019 to fewer than 4,000, and recovery remains incomplete.
This lag in oversight contrasts with the food industry’s consolidation, where a handful of large corporations—like Boar’s Head or Taylor Farms—dominate production. A single failure at one of these mega-facilities can trigger massive recalls, amplifying the public health impact. Posts on X in early 2025 echo consumer frustration, with some blaming “big factory farms” and “Big Agra” for prioritizing profit over safety.
Reason 6: Consumer Awareness and Media Amplification
Finally, the perception of rising recalls in 2025 owes much to heightened consumer awareness and media coverage. Social media platforms like X buzz with updates on recalls, from @FoodSafetyMag’s reports of a five-year high to @WALBNews10’s alerts on bacterial contamination. This amplification feeds into what psychologists call attentional bias—once people notice recalls, they see them everywhere. Gallup polling from 2024 found that 37% of Americans discarded food due to recalls, and trust in federal food safety oversight dipped to 57%, down from higher levels in 2019.
The reality, however, is nuanced. While 2024 saw more illnesses and deaths, the total number of recalls in 2025 (at least through February) suggests a stabilization rather than an explosion. Teresa Murray from PIRG cautions that “the number of recalls doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the safety of food,” but the doubling of severe outcomes in 2024 indicates that when contamination occurs, it’s often more dangerous.
What Can Be Done?
Addressing the rise in food recalls requires a multi-pronged approach. For regulators, bolstering inspection capacity and enforcing FSMA standards—particularly for irrigation water and imported goods—could close critical gaps. Food producers must invest in sanitation, traceability, and testing, especially in high-risk categories like RTE foods and produce. Consumers, meanwhile, can stay informed through FDA alerts, practice safe food handling, and avoid high-risk items (e.g., raw eggs or unpasteurized dairy) if vulnerable.
Conclusion
The rise in food recalls in 2025 is a complex phenomenon, driven by a globalized supply chain, consumer demand for convenience, environmental stressors, improved detection, regulatory challenges, and amplified awareness. While the U.S. food supply remains among the world’s safest, as the FDA asserts, these recalls expose vulnerabilities that demand attention. Whether this trend continues will depend on how industry, government, and consumers respond. For now, the lesson of 2025 is clear: safety requires vigilance at every step, from farm to fork.
