If you get your news from the major cable TV networks, or only surf the ‘fan’ food sites, you probably never hear about food recalls anymore. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any anymore. In fact, food recalls have exploded in all corners of the industry!
I tripped over a goldmine of food recall information entirely by accident this morning. And it got me thinking about how little we hear about food recalls these days. In spite of the fact that food recalls are increasing in number and magnitude, and endangering millions of consumers.
What tipped me…
A visit to Martha Stewart’s website accidentally tipped me to the recall ‘epidemic’. I went there look-ing for stray ‘fun’ food news items and trend indicators. But I was shocked at the number of food recall items Martha featured, just on her first page. I counted 29 recall stories, out of a total of 63 entries. And they covered all manner of foods (fresh, packaged and processed), kitchen appliances and gadgets.
Not until I tried Googling ‘food recalls’ specifically did I discover what was really going on.
Right at the top of the first Google results screen the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Recalls, Market Withdrawls & Safety Alerts page. Showing the first 10 of 1,020 entries; 120 web pages.
Nothing immune from recalls
Just on the first page of the FDA page, I found everything from Bagged Salads, to Shelled Walnuts, to Whole Cucumbers, to Dietary Supplements, to Tahini.
On following pages, I saw notices for products as diverse as pet foods and ice cream bars. Along the way I noted jarred tomato sauce, prepared individually-wrapped sandwiches, coffee products and muffins.
There were 17 entries just for the first 3 weeks of July. Why, I wondered, had I not heard about these recalls?
The rate of change
It’s a classic case of Future Shock. That was the title of the famous – to some, frightening – 1970 dystopian non-fiction best-seller by futurist Alvin Toffler. In it, he prophesied that what was going to hit us hardest on the coming decades was not adapting to the changes that technology would bring to our lives, but the acceleration in the rate at which these changes would come upon us.
I’m old enough to remember the world before cell phones, VCRs and cable TV. Those and many other developments came well after Toffler published his cautionary tale. And, sure enough, his prediction came true. We’ve all felt frustration at trying to learn how to use a new electronic gadget – everything from TV’s to microwave ovens.
Erin and I both have backgrounds as professionals in the computer and information technology sec-tors. And we both gave up some time ago trying to set up any new appliance without first reading the manual. To our surprise, and chagrin, Future Shock has overrun even us.
Stopped pushing
Back in the day, when radio was still a thing – rather than a way to make the morning commute less boring – we got news in a different way. I remember, when I was a young newscaster and reporter on my town’s top radio news outlet. We would put any new product recall of any kind at the top of the hourly update for at least three consecutive ‘casts, and feature it again on the majors – breakfast, noon and bedtime – through the current cycle.
Radio would push the story to you, and television would follow up, pushing more details to you later in the day. Now, nobody’s pushing essentials like recalls. The big cable news ‘pushers’ have chosen to address narrow mandates: politics, sports, natural disasters. Even ‘oddities’ take precedence over po-tentially life-threatening recalls.
We have been left to poke around looking for our news, pulling it from whatever online sources strike our fancy. Worse, there is a lot of misinformation online. And many news seekers may have trouble differentiating between reliable and bogus news sources.
My take
So… It’s up to us to go looking on a regular basis, for the latest recall news. The FDA site is the ultimate reference for US recalls. And the Health Canada Recalls and Safety Alerts site is the gold standard for Canadian recall notices.
I’ve set a reminder in my digital calendar to check them both every week…
~ Maggie J.