Trader Joe’s, another chain, is dealing with recalls, which are at their highest level in five years. (2024)

It’s not just that Trader Joe’s is issuing a flood of recalls. Warnings for consumer products, including edibles, have reached the highest numbers in years. In 2023, 199.7 million units of food and beverage products were affected by 506 recall events, according to Sedgwick Brand Protection’s 2024 State of the Nation Recall Index report, a high of five years. Recalls in 2023 increased 19.6% from the 423 recalls in 2022 and even eclipsed the 498 recalls in 2019. This year appears to continue the trend of 2023: there were 46 food and beverage recalls in January, an increase of 31% from the monthly average of 35 withdrawals in the fourth quarter of 2023.

“It’s clear that strict enforcement of regulations is more than a passing trend,” Chris Harvey, Sedgwick’s senior vice president of brand protection, said in a news release. “In 2024, regulators, policymakers and consumers will continue to monitor, so it will be essential for companies to plan and practice for product recalls and market crises.”

From leaded cinnamon to rubber potentially contained in 35,430 pounds of Johnsonville turkey kielbasa sausage, contaminated products pose a threat to both consumers and businesses. The CDC reported that the February listeria outbreak, which affected Trader Joes, Costco and Walmart, sickened at least 26 people and caused two deaths. Listeriosis kills about 260 people a year and makes about 1,600 sick, according to the CDC. About 48 million people in the U.S. get a foodborne illness each year.

While Trader Joe’s did not respond to FortuneRequested for comment or providing information on how the recalls impacted profits, other industries have experienced the impact of recalls on the bottom line. In 2021, following a recall of 125,000 treadmills over safety concerns, Peloton Chief Financial Officer Jill Woodworth said the impact of the recall on revenue would be $165 million. Shares of Toyota Motor fell 4% after it announced a recall of 1.1 million vehicles and investigated other safety issues in December.

More withdrawals, more dangers? Not always

While seeing more recalls may be shocking to consumers, it is not necessarily an indication that more things are going wrong in food production.

Keith Belk, director of the Center for Meat Safety and Quality at Colorado State University, told ABC in September that improved technology, such as x-rays and metal detectors, has made it easier to detect foreign materials in meats. food.

These technological improvements have been reinforced by the US Congress’ enactment of the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011, which expanded food safety laws and increased the FDA’s power to order recalls. market. Significant changes have been made throughout the production chain. After the passage of the FSMA, the Mexican horticultural sector, the largest supplier of U.S. horticultural imports, invested in new sampling techniques and infrastructure, in addition to ensuring the use of clean water at all stages of production, according to a Department report US Agriculture August 2023 report. These changes did not slow the growth of Mexico’s exports.

Still, there are cases of recalls that go unnoticed. The leading reason for recalls over the past six years is unlabeled allergens, which accounted for 42 recalls in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the Sedgwick report. A 25-year-old dancer from New York died in January after eating a mislabeled cookie that contained peanuts. Federal law dictates that the nine major allergens, including peanuts and soy, be listed on food packaging when relevant.

While the FDA’s goal is to mitigate foodborne illnesses, it cannot reduce contaminants (and therefore recalls) to zero. The FDA has established action levels, or a threshold that takes into account natural or unavoidable defects, for the simple reason that it cannot eliminate all threats to the consumption of certain foods.

“The point is that there will never be a day when the risk associated with consuming a food product is zero,” Belk said.