Guest Columns

Perspective:
Food Safety

Common causes of food recalls and best practices to avoid them

Marianne Smukowski

Marianne Smukowski serves as a member of the American Dairy Products Institute Center of Excellence, where she consults on topics of food safety and quality. She contributes this column exclusively for Cheese Market News®.

Food recalls may appear to have increased significantly because of a combination of real food safety failures and improved detection and reporting, from iceberg lettuce to shredded cheese, salad kits, pasta, Coca-cola and many more. More sensitive pathogen testing, expanded environmental-monitoring programs, whole-genome sequencing, better traceability and increased regulatory oversight can identify contamination that previously might have gone undetected. A single contaminated ingredient may also be distributed among numerous brands and products, causing one incident to generate many separate recall notices.

• Common causes of recalls

The most common causes of recalls fall into three categories:

1. Biological hazards: Pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli may result from contaminated ingredients, inadequate cooking or cooling, poor sanitation or contamination after processing — for example, inadequate cooling of the product or post-process contamination. Poor sanitation practices occurring in the manufacturing plant may be a reason. How people conduct themselves while manufacturing a food product may be another reason for biological hazards occurring.

2. Chemical hazards: Undeclared allergens can result from incorrect labels, packaging mix-ups, formulation changes or failures to control cross-contact. Because even a small amount can cause a severe reaction, affected products must be recalled. Mislabeling and/or misbranding of food products are the No. 1 reason for recalls. Undeclared allergens (eggs, tree nuts, peanut, sesame, soy, milk, fish, shellfish, wheat) are a source of chemical contamination. Consumers are reading labels to ensure they are not consuming an allergen and can eat a safe and wholesome product. Labeling of a product that has an allergen must be correct to ensure no product is mislabeled.

3. Physical hazards: Glass, plastic, metal and other foreign material may enter food through ingredients, damaged equipment, utensils, packaging or employee practices. Manufacturing facilities must review their suppliers and process control procedures to ensure the likelihood of foreign material contamination does not occur.

• How manufacturers can reduce recalls

Manufacturers should strengthen preventive controls throughout the supply chain and production process by:

1. Environmental monitoring: Use a risk-based sampling plan covering appropriate facility zones, employ validated laboratory methods, investigate every positive result and document corrective actions. What can a manufacturer do to decrease the number of recalls? Manufacturers should review their current environmental monitoring program. Do they have a plan in place to address all zones of their facility? What follow-up action is taken if a positive is found? Is an outside lab used to test for the presence of pathogens? What methods are they using? Review pathogen testing methods. Tests have become more sophisticated and are able to detect faster a particular pathogen.

2. Sanitation and process control: Validate cooking, cooling, storage and other critical processes. Prevent post-process contamination and verify that cleaning procedures are effective.

3. Label and allergen control: Approve labels before use, verify labels during changeovers, reconcile packaging materials, control allergen cross-contact and confirm that the correct label is used for each product.

4. Employee and visitor training: Train employees, temporary workers, contractors and visitors in hygiene and good manufacturing practices. Training should address movement between production areas, break rooms, restrooms, warehouses and exterior work areas. Review training schedules for all employees and visitors. Do all employees understand the importance of good manufacturing practices while working in a manufacturing facility? How do they enter the facility, locker room, break room, bathroom, warehouse, receiving and shipping, and production areas? How do they conduct themselves on a break and then return to the production line? How do visitors and construction workers conduct themselves in the facility? Do they understand good manufacturing practices?

5. Supplier verification: Use approved suppliers, maintain written receiving procedures, review certificates and audit results, conduct risk-based ingredient testing and establish clear actions for materials that do not meet specifications. Do you have written procedures in place for receiving ingredients and raw materials and do you keep records? Do you do random sampling and testing of the ingredients? Have you audited the supplier? If not, do you accept third-party audits? Do they meet food safety practices? What happens if the suppliers do not meet specifications?

6. Foreign-material prevention: Inspect equipment, maintain glass and brittle-plastic programs, control tools and utensils, and use appropriate detection systems such as screens, magnets, metal detectors or X-ray equipment.

7. Traceability and mock recalls: Regularly test whether ingredients, packaging materials, work-in-process materials and finished products can be traced quickly and accurately. Mock recalls should measure completion time, quantities accounted for and the percentage of product successfully traced.

An increase in reported recalls does not necessarily mean that food has become proportionately less safe. It may also show that manufacturers and regulators are detecting hazards sooner and removing affected products more effectively. Nevertheless, recurring recalls often reveal preventable weaknesses in sanitation, labeling, supplier controls, employee practices or process verification.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.

© 2026 Cheese Market News • Quarne Publishing, LLC • Legal Information • Online Privacy Policy • Terms and Conditions
Cheese Market News • Business/Advertising Office: P.O. Box 24 • Sun Prairie, WI 53590 • 608/831-6002
Cheese Market News • Editorial Office: 5315 Wall Street, Suite 100 • Madison, WI 53718 • 608/288-9090