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A consumer scrolling social media sees a headline about the latest food recall. She stands up and strides to the kitchen.
She checks the refrigerator and the pantry, scanning the shelves for the label in question.
If the affected product isn’t there, she moves on with her day. No worries.
If it is, she gathers it up and throws it out, making a mental note to avoid that brand — maybe the entire food category — on her next trip to the grocery store.
It’s an increasingly common experience, and it might even sound familiar to you. In fact, food recalls have become so common that many consumers worry that the food supply is becoming less safe. A recent GS1 US consumer survey found that 93% of adults are concerned about the frequency of food recalls.
But here’s the twist …
The same survey revealed that 85% of consumers believe food recalls are effective in protecting public health and safety.
At a glance, those numbers might seem contradictory. But food safety experts see them differently.
The growing visibility of recalls is not evidence that food safety systems are failing. Nor does it suggest grocery shopping is gambling with your family’s health. Rather, they say, it’s evidence that food safety systems are more effective than ever before. They’re identifying problems, communicating risks, and removing affected products faster and more precisely.
“The number of recalls isn’t necessarily a measure of how unsafe the food supply chain is,” Liz Sertl, senior director of supply chain visibility at GS1 US. “It's more a measure of how effective the entire system is at detecting the problems.”
Why more recalls can be a sign of progress
Food recalls are not new. Most of us have never known a time when they didn’t exist.
Now, recalls are rising. In 2025, the USDA and FDA issued more recalls than they had in any year since 2020. Yet the numbers may suggest a more uplifting reality. Rather than indicating that food is less safe, it more likely indicates that the food on store shelves and in consumers’ homes is safer than ever.
The reason is that the food industry has significantly enhanced its ability to identify potential issues and then zero in on exactly which products are affected. From there, organizations can move quickly to address the issue.
Years ago, recalls often involved broad categories because the parties lacked the visibility to limit the impact.
Today, organizations can pinpoint affected products, lots, or batches, leaving fewer instances in which entire product categories are pulled from the shelves out of an abundance of caution.
That difference is critical.
“Back in 2019, all of the romaine lettuce came off the shelf,” Sertl recalled. “Now, the idea is to get that very surgical, precise recall where you can take just one brand, from one lot, from one field off the shelf.”
Sertl credits massive advances in traceability, electronic records, and communication between trading partners and consumers with our progress toward more precise recalls. The result is seen in the consumers’ increased trust in the food recall process.
It’s also seen in the vast reduction in food waste. We’re no longer throwing out an entire nation’s worth of romaine lettuce when the vast majority is perfectly safe to consume.
Traceability makes precision possible
The success of any recall begins with traceability.
Products pass through growers, processors, distributors, logistics partners, and retailers before reaching the consumer’s kitchen.
When a food safety issue emerges, organizations must understand where a product originated, traveled, and landed. That requires accurate data and the ability to share it efficiently.
Sertl’s career spans more than two decades, and she’s seen the industry shift from manual, paper records toward electronic traceability.
“The conversation around making these records electronic has been huge,” she said. “The conversations between trading partners and how this data can be exchanged electronically in a timely way have really advanced.”
Shared standards — like those championed by Sertl’s organization, GS1 US — create a common language for identifying products and exchanging information. Consistency enables clarity and precision, accelerating the decision-making that keeps affected products from reaching the checkout lane.
While progress has been made through enhanced precision, and customer confidence is growing, the industry can improve by becoming even more precise in its recalls and communicating that precision to the public.
According to the GS1 US survey, 60% of consumers say they have avoided an entire food category following a recall. More than half report throwing away food even when it was not directly impacted.
Those reactions create unnecessary waste and negative consequences for consumers, retailers, and brands. Enhanced precision, effectively disseminated, can preserve trust in the entire food industry.
FSMA 204 raises the bar for food safety
The FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act Rule 204 establishes new requirements for products included on the Food Traceability List, which comprises higher-risk foods such as cheese, eggs, butter, produce, seafood, and more. The goal is to make it easier to identify a product’s origin, track its path through the supply chain, and respond effectively when necessary.
The official date for organizations to be FSMA 204 compliant was delayed from January 2026 to July 2028, but leading companies like Wegman’s and Sysco are already pushing to reach this higher standard of traceability. They’re evaluating their records, the information they share, and the systems they use.
As companies approach FSMA 204 compliance, they are improving recall readiness. They are raising visibility levels and reducing waste. And often, they build trust in the marketplace.
Yet the reality is that to achieve the best results, individual companies and organizations need to rely on one another to achieve full compliance.
“Food safety is a pre-competitive issue,” Sertl said. “One part of the supply chain can’t do this alone. We need the entire supply chain ecosystem to make FSMA 204 work well.”
Preparing for what’s next
Though the food industry would love to imagine a future free of recalls, that’s unlikely. Yet, by continuing to work together, organizations can ensure that food safety systems become more sophisticated and effective at identifying and addressing risks with speed and pinpoint precision.
The organizations best positioned to thrive will be those investing in the capabilities that promote precision.
For many, it starts with evaluating data quality and accessibility — product information, lot information, traceability records. Each is more valuable when it can be quickly accessed, shared, and acted upon.
Organizations should also consider how effectively they exchange information with supply chain partners. FSMA 204 is a firm nudge to build processes, partnerships, and data-sharing frameworks that will improve food safety outcomes industry-wide.
Simply put, food safety is a shared responsibility. Success depends on a shared commitment.
And shared standards.
