FDA Recall Enforcement Reports Monitor (openFDA)

Unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Data comes from the official openFDA API enforcement report endpoints, which FDA publishes as public domain under CC0.

Search FDA recall enforcement reports for food (including dietary supplements and cosmetics), drugs and medical devices in one run. Set it on a schedule with Only new since last run to get just the reports you haven't seen yet.

What you get

One row per enforcement report (recallNumber), newest report date first: recall number, category, recall class (I/II/III), status, report / initiation / classification / termination dates, recalling firm and its address, voluntary or mandated, product description, reason for recall, quantity, distribution pattern, lot/code info, and openFDA brand/generic names where FDA provides them.

Rows also carry updateType (new / changed in monitor mode, otherwise null) and changeHash.

compact output keeps only the key fields with text cut to 300 characters.

Input

Field	Notes
categories	food, drug, device (default: all three)
query	phrase matched in product description, reason for recall or code info
recallingFirm	firm name phrase
classifications	Class I, II, III
statuses	Ongoing, Completed, Terminated, Pending
states	2-letter state of the recalling firm
fromReportDate / toReportDate	YYYY-MM-DD. With no keyword, firm or dates, the last 30 days are used
maxItems	max rows per run (default 25, max 5000)
onlyNewSinceLastRun	monitor mode, see below
lookbackDays	monitor-mode re-check window (default 30)
apiKey	optional free openFDA key; raises rate limits

Example:

{ "categories": ["food"], "query": "listeria", "classifications": ["Class I"], "maxItems": 20, "onlyNewSinceLastRun": true }

Only new since last run

The first run with a given set of filters is a baseline: it returns normal results and saves a watermark in a named key-value store in your Apify account (openfda-recall-monitor-state). Later runs with the same filters return only reports whose recall number was not delivered before and whose report date is within lookbackDays of the newest one seen. Different filters keep separate watermarks.

Changed reports: the Actor remembers each delivered report's status, recall class and termination date. If FDA later changes one of these (for example Ongoing to Terminated, or a reclassification) and the report's date is still within lookbackDays of the newest seen report, it is sent again with updateType: "changed" (and counts as a row). Changes to older reports, or to other fields, are not re-sent. If a baseline is cut off by maxItems, older matches are not delivered later; run once without monitor mode to get them.

Run summary

The OUTPUT record has count, chargedCount, the openFDA search used, request URLs (API key removed), apiTotal, truncation flags and monitor-mode details.

Limits and notes

• openFDA updates enforcement data weekly; report dates follow FDA's weekly Enforcement Report.
• Without an API key openFDA allows 240 requests/minute and 1,000 requests/day per IP address, and on Apify that IP is shared with other users. The Actor waits at least 250 ms between requests and, without a key, stops after 100 requests per run (results are then partial and truncationNote says so). If openFDA still returns a rate-limit error the run fails with a clear message. A free key from open.fda.gov raises the limits.
• openFDA disclaimer (verbatim, from every API response): "Do not rely on openFDA to make decisions regarding medical care. While we make every effort to ensure that data is accurate, you should assume all results are unvalidated. We may limit or otherwise restrict your access to the API in line with our Terms of Service." This Actor passes data through as published (except that FDA's "N/A" address placeholders are dropped).
• Some text fields may contain material supplied to FDA by firms.

FAQ

Is this the full FDA recall list? It covers what FDA publishes in openFDA's food, drug and device enforcement endpoints. Vehicle, consumer product and other agencies' recalls are not included.

Do I need an account with FDA? No. An API key is optional.

Support

Questions or problems: digitalpromohub.support@gmail.com