Why Are There So Many Food Recalls in 2026?

The short answer: big recalls, not more recalls

2026 is not on track for a record number of food recalls; it is on track for a normal year with some unusually large ones. FDA food recall events are running at about 495 for the full year on current pace, below 2025's 574. What changed is size and timing: several huge recalls hit the news in the same fortnight.

Three searches spiked on Google this week: 'hot dog recall', 'Kayem bacon and deli recall' and 'toothpaste recall'. The first two are the same event. On 17 October 2026 the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that Kayem Foods of Chelsea, Massachusetts, was recalling about 1,584,361 pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry, including hot dogs, bacon, ham, sausage and turkey breast.

Two days later, on 19 October, the FDA classified a recall of more than 4.3 million tubes of fluoride toothpaste, many of them children's brands with Barbie, Hot Wheels and My Little Pony packaging. Neither recall has been linked to any illness so far.

When we put those events against the long-run data, the 'so many recalls' story weakens. Counting distinct FDA food recall events (one event can cover many products), 2026 had 400 events by 22 October. That is about 9.5 a week, almost exactly the 2019 pace of 9.6 and well below 2016's 15.0. USDA meat and poultry recalls have been far lower since 2020 than in the late 2010s.

What is in the Kayem hot dog, bacon and deli meat recall?

Kayem Foods is recalling about 1,584,361 pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry because the products may have been stored too warm. FSIS gave it Class I, its most serious category. Products were made from 31 March to 7 October 2026 and carry establishment numbers M/P 7839, P 20935A or M 9520.

The problem was not Listeria or a foreign object. According to the FSIS notice, the products 'may have experienced temperature abuse during storage'. On 1 October a retail customer complained that product arrived warm. The company then found that a range of ready-to-eat items had been kept in a warehouse cooler with temperature deviations, which it linked to a cooling-system malfunction.

Brands named in coverage of the FSIS list include Kayem, Al Fresco, Deutschmacher, Essem, Jordan's, McKenzie, Triple M and Winnisimmet St. Butchery. Examples are Kayem Beef & Pork Hot Dogs, Kayem Double Smoked Thick Cut Bacon, Kayem Slow Smoked Beef Brisket, Al Fresco Roasted Pepper & Asiago Chicken Sausage and Triple M Boneless Ham Steaks. The full FSIS product list runs to more than 100 items.

FSIS says no illnesses have been confirmed. Its concern is that some products have a long shelf life and may still be in refrigerators or freezers. Walmart said affected product was sold at select stores in eight Northeastern states, but FSIS lists distribution as nationwide, so do not assume you are safe because you live elsewhere.

Why was toothpaste recalled in 2026?

More than 4.3 million tubes of fluoride toothpaste were recalled for 'current good manufacturing practice deviations' at an Indian manufacturer, Pritam International. The FDA classified it Class II on 19 October 2026, meaning use may cause temporary or medically reversible harm, or serious harm is remote. No illnesses or injuries were reported.

The recall was started voluntarily on 10 September and distributed in the US by Ashtel Studios of Ontario, California. It covers 17 products in 3.5-oz and 4-oz tubes with expiry dates from November 2026 to June 2028, including Brush Buddies kids' toothpaste in Barbie, Hot Wheels, My Little Pony and Crayola Silly Scents packaging.

Two details matter. First, not every lot is recalled, so check lot numbers against the FDA's Enforcement Report event (ID 99849). Second, the gap between the firm starting the recall and the FDA classifying it was 39 days. Many recalls only hit search trends once they are formally classified, which is one reason recall news can feel sudden and clustered.

Are food recalls actually increasing?

FDA food recalls rose in 2025 but are running lower in 2026. There were 574 FDA food recall events in 2025, the most since 2017. With 400 by 22 October, 2026 is on pace for about 495, roughly 14% below 2025. USDA meat and poultry recall counts have stayed far below their 2015–2019 levels.

We counted FDA recall events directly from the openFDA enforcement database for 2015–2021 and got the same totals as the independent tracker RecallBench, which we use for 2022 onward. Sedgwick's industry recall index, which uses its own method, put 2025 FDA food recalls at 571 and called it a nine-year high, consistent with these figures.

The USDA picture is the opposite of the headlines. FSIS averaged 130.4 recalls a year in 2015–2019 and about 46 a year in the five later years we could verify. But the pounds recalled tell a different story: 2025 saw 71,420,721 pounds recalled across just 42 recalls, versus 20,427,455 pounds across 124 recalls in 2019.

Most of the 2025 jump came from one event: a September 2025 recall of roughly 58 million pounds of corn dogs over wood pieces, which alone is about 81% of the year's total. A handful of giant recalls can swamp the totals in either direction, which is why we track event counts as well as volume.

How many food recalls happen per week in 2026 vs 2019?

About 9.5 FDA food recall events a week in 2026, against 9.6 in 2019 and 11.0 in 2025. Our calculation divides each year's FDA event count by the number of weeks it covers. On this measure, 2026 is an average year, not a spike.

The 2026 projection simply extends the year-to-date pace (400 events in 295 days) to 365 days. It is a projection, not a forecast. Because the FDA often classifies recalls weeks after they start (39 days in the toothpaste case), the final 2026 figure will probably come in somewhat higher than the current count suggests.

Severity has not jumped either. In the FDA's product-level data, 29.2% of 2026 food recall listings so far are Class I, compared with 34.7% in 2019 and 47.8% in 2025. On the USDA side, 38 of 42 recalls in 2025 (90.5%) were Class I, up from 78.2% in 2019, partly because FSIS now handles many minor issues through public health alerts rather than recalls.

What causes most food recalls: allergens, Listeria or foreign material?

Undeclared allergens and foreign material cause most recalls, not bacteria. PIRG found about 40% of 2025 food recalls stemmed from allergens missing from the label. At USDA, 13 of 42 recalls in 2025 were for foreign material and 9 for allergens; only 4 were for Listeria.

Across all foods the pattern is similar. A Food Recall Reporter tally cited by Meatingplace found 294 of 482 human food recalls in 2023 were for undeclared allergens, led by milk, soy, tree nuts and sesame. Pathogens came second (91) and foreign materials third (55).

Pathogen recalls do swing sharply from year to year. Consumer Affairs data reported by Meatingplace counted 154 Listeria, Salmonella and E. coli recalls in 2024, up from 87 in 2023 and the most since 2019. That year included the Boar's Head Listeria outbreak, which CRS says killed 10 people and hospitalised 59 across 19 states.

Why do recall numbers go up? Four real drivers

Better detection, stricter allergen rules, bigger centralised supply chains and changes at the regulators all push recall counts and sizes up or down. None of these means food is simply 'getting less safe'; some mean problems are being caught that used to be missed.

1. Whole genome sequencing finds more outbreaks The CDC's PulseNet network moved from older DNA fingerprinting to whole genome sequencing in 2019. The CDC says Listeria outbreaks can now be detected 'when as few as two people have gotten sick'. In one 2018 Salmonella case, sequencing sharpened the outbreak definition and led to a recall of more than 12 million pounds of beef.
2. Sesame became the ninth major allergen Under the FASTER Act, packaged foods had to declare sesame from 1 January 2023. More allergens to declare means more chances for a label to be wrong. The FDA also notes some manufacturers changed recipes to add small amounts of sesame rather than guarantee it was absent.
3. Bigger plants, bigger recalls One facility can supply products under many brands. The Kayem recall spans eight brands and three establishment numbers; the 2025 corn dog recall alone was about 58 million pounds. When one cooler or line fails, the recall is huge even if the number of recalls is small.
4. Regulator capacity is changing OPM data reported by Food Safety Magazine show FSIS lost 874 staff in fiscal 2025 and the FDA 3,859. A planned move of about 200 FSIS headquarters staff to Iowa is paused by a court until 11 December 2026. Fewer staff could mean fewer problems found, or slower classification; the data cannot yet show which.

Is the food recall system working?

Partly. U.S. PIRG's Food for Thought 2026 report found that in 60% of the 28 foodborne outbreak investigations in 2025, no product was recalled. It also notes the FDA delayed enforcement of its food traceability rule from January 2026 to July 2028.

PIRG counted about 320 food recall announcements in 2025 and roughly 1,000 illnesses tied to the 28 outbreaks. Nearly half of those investigations never identified even the type of food involved. PIRG also points out that the FDA does not post public announcements for every potentially life-threatening recall, so the press releases you see are not the full list.

That helps explain why different 'recall totals' circulate. PIRG counts public announcements (about 320 in 2025), RecallBench and our openFDA count use Enforcement Report events (574), and Sedgwick uses its own index (571). All three can be right at once because they measure different things.

What do Class I, Class II and Class III recalls mean?

Class I is the most serious: a reasonable probability of serious health consequences or death. Class II means temporary or medically reversible harm, or a remote chance of serious harm. Class III means the product is unlikely to cause harm. Kayem is Class I; the toothpaste recall is Class II.

Most recalls are voluntary: a firm starts them, or the FDA requests one, though the FDA can order some. For meat and poultry, firms must tell FSIS within 24 hours if they believe a product is adulterated or misbranded. If a firm refuses to recall, FSIS can detain product for up to 20 days or seek a court seizure, according to the Congressional Research Service.

What should you do if you bought recalled hot dogs, bacon or toothpaste?

Check the establishment number or lot code, and if it matches, do not eat or use the product: throw it away or return it for a refund. For Kayem meats, look for EST. M/P 7839, P 20935A or M 9520 inside the USDA inspection mark. For toothpaste, match the lot and expiry against FDA event 99849.

1. 1
   Find the code on the pack

   Meat and poultry carry an establishment number inside the round USDA mark. Toothpaste and most FDA products use a lot number and expiry date, usually on the crimp or base of the tube.

2. 2
   Compare it with the official list

   Use the FSIS recall page for meat, poultry and egg products, and the FDA Enforcement Report or recall notice for other foods and toothpaste. News articles often list only a few examples.

3. 3
   Do not eat, taste or use it

   Even if it looks and smells normal. Temperature-abused deli meat and Listeria contamination are not detectable by smell.

4. 4
   Throw away or return

   Bag it before binning, or take it back to the store. Kayem's customer line is 800-426-6100 (Mon–Fri, 7:30 a.m.–4 p.m. ET); the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline is 888-674-6854.

5. 5
   Clean surfaces it touched

   Wipe fridge shelves and drawers that held recalled ready-to-eat meat, since Listeria can survive and grow in the cold.

6. 6
   Watch for symptoms and call a doctor if worried

   FSIS advises anyone concerned about an illness to contact a healthcare provider. This matters most for pregnant people, older adults and anyone with a weakened immune system.

7. 7
   Get future alerts automatically

   Recalls.gov collects recalls from several federal agencies and offers email alerts. The USDA's FoodKeeper app lets you opt in to FSIS and FDA recall alerts immediately, daily or weekly.

Will 2026 end with more food recalls than 2025?

Probably not by count. At 400 FDA food recall events by 22 October, 2026 would need about 174 more in ten weeks to match 2025's 574, roughly 17 a week versus the current 9.5. Pound volumes are harder to call, because one giant recall can change the total.

FSIS has not published a 2026 annual recall total and normally releases its calendar-year summary early the following year. The FDA's openFDA feed was last updated 7 October 2026 at the time of writing, so the most recent weeks are not fully counted.

What to watch: whether the Kayem recall expands, whether any illnesses are linked to it, the court ruling on the USDA reorganisation due by 11 December, and how quickly the FDA classifies recalls that firms have already started. For money and consumer context on other headlines that sound bigger than the data, see our analysis of whether the US dollar is really dying.

Claims vs evidence

Frequently asked questions

How we built this analysis

• FDA food recall events: distinct event IDs in the openFDA food enforcement dataset, grouped by report year. We queried openFDA for 2015–2021 (e.g. 502 events in 2019, split 225 + 277 by half-year) and matched RecallBench's published totals exactly, then used RecallBench for 2022–2026 (2026 counted to 22 October).
• FDA product listings and Class I share: openFDA food enforcement record counts by classification per report year (e.g. 2025: 773 Class I of 1,617 listings = 47.8%; 2026 to 7 October: 240 of 822 = 29.2%).
• Events per week: annual events ÷ (days in period ÷ 7). 2026: 400 ÷ (295 ÷ 7) = 9.49; 2019: 502 ÷ 52.14 = 9.63; 2025: 574 ÷ 52.14 = 11.01; 2016: 782 ÷ 52.29 = 14.96. 2026 pace: 400 ÷ 295 × 365 = 495, which is 13.8% below 574.
• USDA FSIS recall counts, classes, causes and pounds come from FSIS Summary of Recall Cases pages for 2015–2023; 2025 from Food Safety Magazine's summary of the FSIS 2025 report. Averages: 2015–2019 = 652 ÷ 5 = 130.4; 2020–2023 plus 2025 = 230 ÷ 5 = 46. Allergen share = allergen recalls ÷ total (2025: 9 ÷ 42 = 21.4%).
• Corn dog share of 2025 pounds: ~58 million ÷ 71,420,721 = about 81%. Toothpaste classification lag: 10 September to 19 October = 39 days. Remaining 2026 events needed to match 2025: 574 − 400 = 174 over ~10 weeks.
• Recall facts for Kayem and the toothpaste recall are taken from the FSIS and FDA notices as reported by Fox Business, AARP, Food Safety News, Fox 4 and Deseret News; we could not load the FSIS recall page directly.

Limitations

Recall counts depend on what is counted: announcements, Enforcement Report events or product listings, and calendar vs fiscal years, so totals from different sources will not match. FDA data for the latest weeks are incomplete because recalls are classified after they start. We could not verify the FSIS 2024 annual total, and FSIS has not published a 2026 total. Recall counts measure regulatory action, not the actual safety of the food supply. This article is general consumer information, not medical or legal advice; follow the official recall notice and contact a healthcare provider about any symptoms.

Spotted an error? See our corrections policy. Read how we work in our methodology and editorial standards.

Sources

1. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service
   Summary of Recall and PHA Cases in Calendar Year 202365 recalls, 4,005,384 lbs, causes and public health alerts
2. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service
   Summary of Recall Cases in Calendar Year 2019124 recalls, 20,427,455 lbs, by class and cause
3. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service
   Summary of Recall Cases in Calendar Year 2022 (also 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021 summaries)Annual FSIS recall counts and causes; other years at fsis.usda.gov/es/node/1706, 1705, 1704, 1702, 4546, 4757
4. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (openFDA)
   Food Enforcement Reports APIRecall event and product listing counts by year and class; data last updated 7 Oct 2026
5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration
   Recalls Background and DefinitionsClass I, II, III definitions
6. U.S. Food and Drug Administration
   FASTER Act: Sesame Is the Ninth Major Food AllergenSesame labeling from 1 Jan 2023
7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
   The Listeria Whole Genome Sequencing ProjectOutbreaks detectable with as few as two cases
8. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
   2019: PulseNet laboratories transition to whole genome sequencingWGS transition; 12 million lb beef recall example
9. Congressional Research Service
   Federal Inspection of Meat, Poultry, and Egg Products (IF12784)Recall process, classes, Boar's Head outbreak figures
10. U.S. PIRG Education Fund
    Report: FDA did not identify product to recall in 60% of food illness outbreaks in 2025Food for Thought 2026: ~320 recalls, ~40% allergens, 28 outbreaks
11. Fox Business
    Massive meat recall hits 1.6M pounds of hot dogs, bacon, brisket sold nationwideKayem: 1,584,361 lbs, Class I, establishment numbers (citing FSIS)
12. AARP
    Over 1 Million Pounds of Hot Dogs, Sausages and Other Meats RecalledKayem brands, dates, contacts (citing FSIS)
13. Fox 4 News
    FDA announces recall of more than 4.3 million tubes of fluoride toothpasteToothpaste: firm, brands, Class II on 19 Oct, initiated 10 Sep
14. RecallBench
    U.S. recall statistics: recalls per year by agencyFDA food events by year from openFDA; 2026 YTD to 22 Oct
15. Food Safety Magazine
    Foreign Material, Undeclared Allergens Caused Most USDA Food Recalls in 2025FSIS 2025: 42 recalls, 71,420,721 lbs, causes; see also FY2026 staffing article 11133