TL;DR: U.S. regulators issued 320 food recalls in 2025, linked to 1,003 illnesses, 235 hospitalizations and 22 deaths, with undeclared allergens behind 38.8% of recalls and Listeria behind 21 of the 22 deaths.
2025 recall total and health toll
A total of 320 food recalls were issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2025, according to Chart: 320 Food Recalls Issues in the U.S. in 2025 | Statista.
That tally is based on the latest data published by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) and summarized by Statista on June 2, 2026.
In that year, 1,003 people were recorded as having become sick after having eaten the food, with 235 cases of people having been hospitalized and 22 deaths.
PIRG is the organization that compiled the illness, hospitalization and death counts linked to those FDA and USDA actions.
The 2025 figures cover recalls from both agencies combined, not FDA actions alone or USDA meat and poultry actions alone.
U.S. food regulators recorded 28 foodborne illness outbreaks in 2025, a figure cited by PIRG researchers in the same dataset.
Regulators estimate that closer to one in six people in the U.S. are affected by foodborne diseases each year, providing context for the laboratory-confirmed outbreak cases.
Why undeclared allergens led the list
The most common reason for food recalls in 2025 was undeclared allergens, accounting for nearly four in ten cases, or 38.8 percent of all food recalls.
Within undisclosed-allergens recalls, milk was the most frequently cited allergen, representing 20.6 percent of those recalls.
Tree nuts accounted for 16.8 percent of undisclosed-allergens recalls, followed by wheat at 7.6 percent.
Eggs accounted for 6.1 percent of undisclosed-allergens recalls, while sesame accounted for 5.3 percent.
One in four undisclosed-allergens recall cases involved a lack of information on multiple allergens, at 25.2 percent.
The pattern means allergen labeling, rather than a pathogen alone, was the single largest driver of the 320 actions.
Listeria and the ready-to-eat pasta outbreak
Another main driver of recalls in 2025 was Listeria, with one prolonged outbreak tied to ready-to-eat pasta products.
In June 2025, the USDA announced recalls involving three ready-to-eat pasta products that were sent to Kroger and Walmart, following concerns of listeria.
In September, there were new pasta recalls, also linked to the June announcement, with 15 further ready-made pasta products affected.
By October 30, 25 people had been hospitalized and six people had died due to the outbreak.
According to PIRG, the first illness in that outbreak was detected in August 2024.
Researchers highlight the lag time before these recalls were issued, pointing to more than a year between the first detected illness and the later expanded actions.
Listeria was responsible for 21 out of the 22 deaths recorded in 2025, making it the dominant cause of fatal cases that year.
Other causes: Salmonella, objects, lead and radiation
Salmonella accounted for 11.3 percent of cases among the reasons for outbreaks in 2025.
The discovery of foreign objects such as metal or wood accounted for 8.8 percent of cases.
Lead being found in the food accounted for 2.8 percent of cases.
In 3.8 percent of cases, the food was found to have radioactive contamination.
Together, those four categories accounted for more than one-quarter of the reasons identified in the PIRG data summarized by Statista.
How 2025 compared with 2024
The 2025 illness figures were lower than in 2024 for reported sickness and hospitalizations, but higher for deaths.
In 2024, there were 1,804 people reported sick and 487 hospitalizations.
That year, there were 19 deaths, compared with 22 deaths in 2025.
These numbers are likely low estimates, however, due to the numbers only accounting for those who sought medical care and whose case was subsequently identified as linked to an outbreak.
That limitation applies to both the 2024 and 2025 counts of sick, hospitalized and fatal cases.
Warnings that never became public posts
In addition to long lag times, PIRG researchers warn that the FDA does not publicly post announcements for all potentially life-threatening recalls.
This was the case for 17 cases out of 28 foodborne illness outbreaks recorded by U.S. food regulators in 2025.
In those instances, a public announcement was often absent because the exact product causing the illness could not be identified.
According to food safety experts cited in the Statista summary, funding cuts and layoffs to the FDA and USDA have increased concerns of food safety lapses across the United States.
The concern links agency capacity to the ability to identify products, issue timely recalls and communicate risk.
Ready-to-eat meats drove USDA warnings
A separate analysis of USDA meat and poultry actions shows a concentration in ready-to-eat (RTE) meats, according to Ready to recall: These meats are behind 40% of USDA food warnings | Stacker.
Sentient examined 1,163 recalls and public health alerts in public USDA data covering 2014 to 2025.
Perishable RTE meats account for at least 4 in 10 of all USDA food safety warnings in that period, or at least 40%.
The 40% figure includes only fully cooked, perishable RTE meats and excludes other RTE meats, including fully shelf-stable meat like jerky and cured meats, that could not be reliably separated in the USDA data.
RTE meats are, by the USDA's definition, edible without additional preparation to achieve food safety.
Meat and poultry recalls are typically initiated by the manufacturer notifying the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the agency responsible for ensuring the safety of the U.S. meat and poultry supply.
The USDA investigates the concern, and if verified, issues a public recall notice warning consumers to avoid the affected products.
If products are no longer being sold — or when a company refuses to recall the products — the agency instead issues a public health alert.
USDA food safety warnings are limited to meat and poultry, whereas the FDA regulates a wider range of food and has a separate process for issuing and communicating recalls.
Glass, metal and wood cases still active
A staggering 37 million pounds of frozen chicken and pork products, much of it ready to eat, is no longer considered safe for consumption after being shipped to retailers, including Trader Joe's, across the U.S. and exported to Canada and Mexico.
Four customers complained about glass shards in the food to the manufacturer, Ajinomoto Foods North America, which issued a recall and alerted regulators at the USDA.
The federal agency notified the public in February and again about an expanded recall in March.
Both recalls remain in effect nationwide, representing two of the USDA's four active recall alerts in effect.
The only other recalls still underway, first announced by the USDA in 2025, involve pieces of metal and wood, respectively, found in BBQ pork jerky produced by meat snack manufacturer LSI, Inc. and chicken corn dog and turkey sticks produced by Foster Farms, California's largest poultry producer.
What processing and health research show
RTE meats include hot dogs, salami, pâté, jerky, prosciutto and rotisserie chicken, products often branded for quick consumption.
Sentient's analysis found RTE warnings were most often due to product contamination, followed by misbranding, undeclared allergens and products that had not undergone inspection before entering the U.S. food supply.
Moist environments typical for processing RTE meats provide conditions where Listeria can persist, a point explained by Ellen Shumaker, the director of outreach of North Carolina State University Extension's evidence-based food safety programming.
Earlier in May 2026, the USDA alerted the public to a Listeria outbreak that may have originated with contaminated pork deli meats, or headcheese, when it was discovered that three people were sick in Illinois.
Headcheese — jellied meat molded into a loaf, traditionally eaten cold — has emerged as the most likely source of that outbreak following a positive test result for the pathogen.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates there are 48 million cases of foodborne illnesses every year in the U.S., resulting in 3,000 annual deaths, with many outbreaks tracing back to RTE meats.
A growing body of research has linked processed meats, including RTE meats, to chronic health conditions such as colorectal cancer, cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes, and the World Health Organization classifies processed meats as carcinogenic to humans.