# Canada Recalls & Safety Alerts Product Matcher (`dafei-data/canada-recalls-product-matcher`) Actor

Match your products (brand, model, UPC/EAN, ASIN, name) against official Government of Canada recalls and safety alerts (Health Canada, CFIA, Transport Canada open data). Confidence and match reason per hit, filters, only-new mode, free Excel report. Not legal advice.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/dafei-data/canada-recalls-product-matcher.md
- **Developed by:** [dafei-data](https://apify.com/dafei-data) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Business, Automation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Canada Recalls & Safety Alerts Product Matcher

> **Disclaimer / 免责声明:** Unofficial tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Government of Canada, Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) or Transport Canada. Results are for information only and are **not legal or compliance advice**; always check the official recall page. 本工具为非官方工具，与加拿大政府无关联、未获其认可；结果仅供参考，**不构成法律或合规意见**，请以官方召回页面为准。

**Data attribution (Open Government Licence – Canada):**
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Source: Government of Canada, [Recalls and Safety Alerts](https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/d38de914-c94c-429b-8ab1-8776c31643e3) open data (Health Canada, CFIA, Transport Canada). Licence: [Open Government Licence – Canada](https://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada) (version 2.0).

**Modification notice:** The Actor removes HTML tags/entities, replaces e-mail addresses and phone numbers with `[email removed]` / `[phone removed]`, and automatically extracts brand, UPC/EAN, ASIN and model codes from the official text (may be incomplete). Original English wording of title, product, issue, category and recall class is kept.
**Translation notice / 译文说明:** Chinese fields (`confidenceLabelZh`, `matchBasisZh`, `attributionZh`, Excel second header row) are an unofficial translation by this Actor, not by the Government of Canada; the English original prevails. 中文为本 Actor 生成的非官方译文，以英文原文为准。

### What it does

Give it your product list (name, brand, model, UPC/EAN, ASIN) and it checks every item against the official Government of Canada **Recalls and Safety Alerts** open data file — consumer products, food (CFIA), vehicles (Transport Canada), medical devices, drugs and health products — about 34,000 recalls. The Actor downloads **one official JSON file** per run; no web pages are crawled.

| Match | Confidence |
|---|---|
| UPC/EAN/GTIN identical (check digit validated, leading zeros ignored) | 1.0 |
| ASIN identical | 1.0 |
| Brand + model | 0.85 |
| Model / code | 0.6 |
| Brand + similar product words | 0.5 |
| Brand only | 0.4 |
| Similar product words | 0.3 |

Note: Canadian recall records rarely include barcodes (UPCs appear in only a handful of records), so most matches come from **brand, model and product words** taken from the official title and product name.

Each result has `confidence`, `matchBasis` / `matchBasisZh`, the official recall `url`, `title`, `product`, `issue`, `category`, `organization`, `recallClass`, `lastUpdated`, `archived`, extracted `brand` / `barcodes` / `models`, and `attribution`, `licenseUrl`, `modificationNotice`, `translationNotice`, `disclaimer`. Leave `products` empty to simply **export recalls** (monitor mode).

### Try it now

Click **Try for free**, paste this into the Input tab (JSON) and press **Start**:

```json
{
  "products": [
    { "sku": "DEMO-1", "name": "Gingersnap cookies", "brand": "President's Choice" },
    { "sku": "DEMO-2", "name": "Medium sugar", "brand": "Redpath" },
    { "sku": "DEMO-3", "name": "Garden hose", "brand": "MyBrand", "model": "GH-500" }
  ],
  "days": 30,
  "minConfidence": 0.4
}
```

**Real output** (cloud run on 2026-10-28, UTC+8, same input): DEMO-1 and DEMO-2 matched CFIA recalls with confidence 0.5 (same brand + similar product words), DEMO-3 had no match. 3 products checked, 2 matches.

![Sample output: Canadian recall matches for President's Choice and Redpath products](https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/rZAPAMH2laMhiHfpr/records/canada-recall-sample-output.png)

Excerpt of one dataset item:

```json
{
  "type": "match",
  "confidence": 0.5,
  "confidenceLabel": "medium",
  "matchBasis": ["Same brand \"Redpath\"", "Similar product (shared words: medium, sugar)"],
  "matchBasisZh": ["同品牌「Redpath」", "同类商品（共同词：medium、sugar）"],
  "yourProduct": { "sku": "DEMO-2", "name": "Medium sugar", "brand": "Redpath" },
  "nid": "82762",
  "title": "Redpath brand Medium Sugar recalled due to pieces of metal",
  "url": "https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/redpath-brand-medium-sugar-recalled-due-pieces-metal",
  "organization": "CFIA",
  "category": "Candy, confectionary, snacks and sweeteners",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-10-09",
  "archived": false,
  "attribution": "Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada. Source: ..."
}
```

### Use cases

#### 1. Amazon.ca / Walmart.ca seller: weekly catalog self-check

Put your SKUs with brand, model and UPC in `products`, set `incremental: true` and schedule weekly. Each run only looks at recalls that are new or updated since the previous run, so you get an alert the week a product you sell is recalled in Canada.

#### 2. Importer or distributor: check a new supplier's line before listing

Before importing, run the supplier's product list with `days: 0` and `includeArchived: true` to search the whole recall history (since the 1990s) for the brand and models.

#### 3. Grocery / food retailer: CFIA recall monitor

Use monitor mode (no products) with `organizations: ["CFIA"]` and a schedule to receive every new food recall, or add your private-label brands to `products` to get only the hits.

#### 4. Fleet manager or used-car dealer: Transport Canada vehicle recalls

Filter `organizations: ["TC"]`, `categories: ["Car", "SUV", "Truck"]` and add make/model as `brand` / `model`.

#### 5. Compliance team: export to Excel

Every run saves a free bilingual **REPORT.xlsx** (English + Chinese headers, clickable links, About sheet with the OGL-Canada attribution).

### Input options

`products`, `days` (0 = all history), `organizations` (e.g. `Consumer product safety`, `CFIA`, `TC`, `Medical devices`), `categories` (e.g. `Toys and games`, `Household items`, `Food`), `recallClasses`, `keywords`, `includeArchived`, `minConfidence`, `incremental` + `stateStoreName`, `excelReport`, `maxItems`. All filters are case-insensitive substrings of the official values.

### Pricing (pay per event, USD)

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| Actor start | $0.00005 |
| Recall listed (monitor mode) | $0.002 |
| Product checked (per product per run) | $0.001 |
| Match found | $0.01 |
| Excel report | free |

### Privacy & data use

- Downloads only the official open data file `HCRSAMOpenData.json` from recalls-rappels.canada.ca (allowed by robots.txt), up to 3 times per run (a few seconds apart, cache-busting). The official server sometimes serves an older copy of the same file, so the Actor compares the newest "Last updated" date of each copy and uses only the newest one; that date is shown as `dataAsOf` on every item, in `SUMMARY` and on the Excel About sheet, together with how many downloads succeeded and how many versions were seen. No pages are crawled, no login.
- **No personal information is extracted.** E-mail addresses and phone numbers in "What you should do" are removed.
- The Government of Canada's names, crests and logos are not used; no official status or endorsement is implied.

### Related: global recall matcher series

- [UK Product Recall Matcher](https://apify.com/dafei-data/uk-product-recall-matcher) — match ASINs, EANs and models against UK OPSS product safety reports and recalls (GOV.UK).
- [EU Safety Gate Product Matcher](https://apify.com/dafei-data/eu-safety-gate-product-matcher) — match your catalog against EU Safety Gate (RAPEX) dangerous-product alerts.
- Developer news: [Hacker News Monitor: Keywords, Domains, Show HN + Chinese](https://apify.com/dafei-data/hacker-news-monitor-chinese) — only-new Hacker News alerts for your keywords, domains and Show HN launches, with Chinese machine-translated titles and a bilingual Excel report.

# Actor input Schema

## `products` (type: `array`):

Your catalog. Each item may have: sku, name, brand, model, upc / barcode (UPC/EAN/GTIN), barcodes, asin, asins, keywords. Leave empty to list recalls (monitor mode).

## `days` (type: `integer`):

Recalls last updated in the last N days. 0 = all history (34,000+ records since 1990s).

## `organizations` (type: `array`):

Optional substrings, e.g. Consumer product safety, CFIA, TC (Transport Canada), Medical devices, Drugs and health products.

## `categories` (type: `array`):

Optional substrings of the official category, e.g. Toys and games, Household items, Food, Car, Electronics, Cosmetics.

## `recallClasses` (type: `array`):

Optional, e.g. Class 1, Type I.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Optional: keep only recalls whose title or product contains one of these words.

## `includeArchived` (type: `boolean`):

Archived = older recalls kept for reference.

## `minConfidence` (type: `number`):

1.0 UPC/EAN or ASIN identical; 0.85 brand+model; 0.6 model; 0.5 brand+similar; 0.4 brand; 0.3 similar product words.

## `incremental` (type: `boolean`):

Remember processed recalls (ID + update date) in a named key-value store; later runs only look at new or updated ones.

## `stateStoreName` (type: `string`):

One name per subscription.

## `excelReport` (type: `boolean`):

Save REPORT.xlsx (English + Chinese headers, About sheet with OGL-Canada attribution). Free.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum dataset items (charged events stop here).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "products": [
    {
      "sku": "DEMO-1",
      "name": "Gingersnap cookies",
      "brand": "President's Choice"
    },
    {
      "sku": "DEMO-2",
      "name": "Medium sugar",
      "brand": "Redpath"
    },
    {
      "sku": "DEMO-3",
      "name": "Balloon blowing kit",
      "keywords": "balloon"
    },
    {
      "sku": "DEMO-4",
      "name": "Garden hose",
      "brand": "MyBrand",
      "model": "GH-500"
    }
  ],
  "days": 30,
  "includeArchived": false,
  "minConfidence": 0.4,
  "incremental": false,
  "stateStoreName": "canada-recall-seen",
  "excelReport": true,
  "maxItems": 1000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `overview` (type: `string`):

No description

## `report` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "products": [
        {
            "sku": "DEMO-1",
            "name": "Gingersnap cookies",
            "brand": "President's Choice"
        },
        {
            "sku": "DEMO-2",
            "name": "Medium sugar",
            "brand": "Redpath"
        },
        {
            "sku": "DEMO-3",
            "name": "Balloon blowing kit",
            "keywords": "balloon"
        },
        {
            "sku": "DEMO-4",
            "name": "Garden hose",
            "brand": "MyBrand",
            "model": "GH-500"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("dafei-data/canada-recalls-product-matcher").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "products": [
        {
            "sku": "DEMO-1",
            "name": "Gingersnap cookies",
            "brand": "President's Choice",
        },
        {
            "sku": "DEMO-2",
            "name": "Medium sugar",
            "brand": "Redpath",
        },
        {
            "sku": "DEMO-3",
            "name": "Balloon blowing kit",
            "keywords": "balloon",
        },
        {
            "sku": "DEMO-4",
            "name": "Garden hose",
            "brand": "MyBrand",
            "model": "GH-500",
        },
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("dafei-data/canada-recalls-product-matcher").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "products": [
    {
      "sku": "DEMO-1",
      "name": "Gingersnap cookies",
      "brand": "President'\''s Choice"
    },
    {
      "sku": "DEMO-2",
      "name": "Medium sugar",
      "brand": "Redpath"
    },
    {
      "sku": "DEMO-3",
      "name": "Balloon blowing kit",
      "keywords": "balloon"
    },
    {
      "sku": "DEMO-4",
      "name": "Garden hose",
      "brand": "MyBrand",
      "model": "GH-500"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call dafei-data/canada-recalls-product-matcher --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,dafei-data/canada-recalls-product-matcher"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/3GGrrpAksMJimXAV9/builds/BOLtgBZeZQSdnwdKo/openapi.json