A decade in food recalls stats

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has published a document outlining trends and statistics of food recalls in Australia for the past decade.

Over the last 10 years FSANZ has coordinated 776 food recalls, which equates to just over 75 a year on average. This represents a small fraction of the total food sold around the country, and even then most recalls are precautionary and initiated by businesses themselves.

The analysis shows an increasing number of food recalls per year, in a generally upwards trend. However, FSANZ notes that this is not a cause for concern but actually a good demonstration of food regulations working as they are meant to, rather than there being a substantial ballooning of contaminated foods or incorrectly labelled packages. The safeguarding system is instead pre-emptively making sure that consumers do not face the prospect of dangerous foods.

In fact, FSANZ expects the trend of recalls to grow each year, as advances in technology, testing and traceability will result in increased recalls each year.

The substantial majority of food recalls were issued for consumer foods, with only 14% being initiated in the trade space (such as for foods sold in the wholesale sector). Most food recalls were for either undeclared allergens or microbial contaminations; these made up over two-thirds of the recalls. Other issues surrounding packaging or labelling made up a much smaller number of recalls and foreign matter recalls have actually fallen. The analysis shows that most allergen-based recalls were initiated because of customer complaints.

The sort of food most commonly recalled for microbial contamination is dairy products, accounting for a quarter of recalls. The principal source of these recalls was Listeria monocytogenes, which can contaminate many kinds of foods. Those numbers may be due to the extensive testing that food producers undertake specifically for these microbes. Of course, manufacturers are consistently on the lookout for both E. coli and Salmonella contamination.

The food recall statistics page is available online and shows further trends and numbers with the help of graphs and tables.

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