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A recent Food for Thought report announced foodborne illnesses in 2024 increased significantly over the previous year. Even scarier, the number of deaths and hospitalizations due to severe illnesses doubled!
Doubled!
Overall, there were 1,392 people sickened by contaminated food in 2024. The number of severe illnesses resulting in hospitalizations went from 230 in 2023 to 487 in 2024.
If it felt like there were tons of reports of outbreaks and recalls in the news last year, it is because there was. This awareness led to the debate of whether or not this all of this made our food system safer. After all, you can only protect yourself from what you know.
The debate on that topic continues. But the outlook is not so good.
Enter the 2025 Food for Thought Report.
This Food for Thought report gathered a lot of data. Here is a breakdown of what they found.
But first. Who wrote this report?
For full transparency, it is a good idea to look into who wrote the report. This report was published by the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). Which is part of a larger organization, the Public Interest Network.
According to their website, this organization operates and supports “organizations committed to a shared vision of a better world and a strategic approach to social change.”
Essentially, they fund other groups that support their mission.
In this case, the PIRG and this Food for Thought Report on the status of foodborne illness.
So, what did that report say?
The Food for Thought report talks about the number of recalls observed during 2024 and the worst offending categories. Both in type and food source.
The report also talks about what germs made people sick. Along with the rates of reported illness, hospitalizations, and deaths.
The report also explored the 13 foodborne outbreaks that resulted in product recalls. Those findings will likely be familiar to you.
Two organizations, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are responsible for regulating the safety of the nation’s food supply.
The USDA is over meat and poultry. As well as some fish and egg products. The FDA handles pretty much everything else.
So how many recalls were there in 2024?
Between recalls and alerts, the FDA had 241 announcements. An increase of 8% from 2023 reports.
The USDA, however, had a bit fewer reports in 2024, with 55. A 38% decline from 2023.
This adds up to 296 food recall announcements for last year. An overall decrease of 5%.
That sounds like an improvement. But unfortunately, fewer recalls did not mean fewer illnesses. We will get to those statistics soon.
Recalls are prompted by potential contamination or adulteration as well as undeclared allergens. All things that can have a significant impact on the consumer.
These are sometimes voluntary, when a food manufacturer discovers a problem. But other times, recalls are announced following routine testing activities, on-site inspections, or linked illnesses.
According to the report, increases or decreases in the number of recalls could simply mean that there were more or fewer inspections or people going to the doctor. Too many variables to truly indicate the safety of the food supply.
Despite the slight decline in the number of recalls, the sheer volume of recalled products may have been more due to the large scale recalls that occurred in 2024.
For example, Boar’s Head lunch meat was responsible for a missive recall. McDonald’s Quarter Pounders onions had a huge impact. Not to mention the frozen waffles and pancakes from a manufacturer that impacted 40 different brands and 240 different products.
The Food for Thought report ranked the reason for 2024 recalls in order from largest to smallest.
Undeclared allergens/ingredients ranked #1 with 101 in the category. This accounted for 34% of all recalls. The top undeclared allergen was peanuts and tree nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans, and walnuts).
Listeria contamination ranked #2 with 65 recalls in 2024. A 34% increase from 2023.
Salmonella contamination ranked #3 with 41 recalls in 2024. A 52% increase from 2023.
Lead contamination ranked #4 with 13 recalls in 2024. A significant increase due to lead in cinnamon products.
Foreign Matter Contamination ranked #5 with 12 recalls in 2024. A decline from 2023. These involved metal, plastic, and other potentially hazardous materials.
The Food for Thought report broke down the number of recalls associated with pathogens. While undeclared allergens were responsible for most of the outbreaks, three germs (Listeria, Salmonella, and norovirus) ranked the top pathogens.
Accounting for 22% of the recalls in 2024, Listeria ranks as the top pathogen. There were 65 recalls due to this germ. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 1,600 people become sick with Listeria infections each year. Around 260 die from those infections.
In 2024 there were 41 recalls due to Salmonella, accounting for 14% that year. Each year, Salmonella causes an estimated 35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths in the United States each year.
While the Food for Thought report indicates that norovirus is the top cause of contaminated food outbreaks, the specific number of recalls attributed to the virus was not included. However, the CDC estimates that that norovirus causes somewhere between 19 and 21 million illnesses each year. With around 109,000 hospitalizations and 900 deaths.
Over the course of the year, there were 13 major foodborne illness outbreaks. 98% of the nearly 1,400 sick from foodborne recalls were linked to these outbreaks.
An additional 14 FDA outbreak investigations in 2024 were closed without recalling a product. Two other outbreaks have carried into 2025.
PIRG’s Food for Thought Report covered a lot of topics. Did anything in this report surprise you? Were there more or less reports of recalls and outbreaks than you remember?
If you’d like to know more about food safety topics in the news, like “Food Poisoning Deaths and Hospitalizations Doubled in 2024, Says Food for Thought Report,” check out the Make Food Safe Blog. We regularly update trending topics, foodborne infections in the news, recalls, and more! Stay tuned for quality information to help keep your family safe, while The Lange Law Firm, PLLC strives to Make Food Safe!
By: Heather Van Tassell (contributing writer, non-lawyer)
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