FDA Recall Scraper - Drug, Device & Food Recalls, openFDA

An FDA recalls API scraper: food, drug and device enforcement reports straight from the FDA's public openFDA endpoints, searchable by product, firm, classification and date.

What the FDA recalls API returns

This FDA recall scraper turns the official openFDA enforcement data into a clean, queryable feed — one flat row per recall with the recall number, product type, classification + plain-English severity (Class I/II/III → High/Medium/Low), status, recalling firm, brand / generic / manufacturer, reason for recall, distribution, ISO dates, and location. Pull drug, medical-device, and food recalls in one run, filter by severity / status / state / date / keyword, and export to CSV, JSON, or Excel.

Built for pharma & medtech regulatory and quality teams, consultancies, biotech investors, and journalists who need a structured recall feed for monitoring — not openFDA's raw, deeply-nested JSON. Official US government data, no API key, no anti-bot.

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Why use this instead of openFDA directly

openFDA is powerful but raw: verbose records, nested openfda objects, YYYYMMDD date strings, and three separate endpoints. This actor does the cleanup for you:

• One clean flat row per recall — drops straight into a spreadsheet or BI tool.
• Explainable 0-100 risk_score — not just a class letter. Every score ships with a score_breakdown (severity, recency, distribution scale, status, harm signals) and a plain-English score_rationale, so you can sort by real risk and see why. No other recall scraper shows its work.
• Recall lifecycle — is_open, days_open, and time_to_classification_days tell you what's still active and how fast the FDA moved.
• Plain-English severity — Class I/II/III mapped to High/Medium/Low + a severity_rank for sorting.
• Brand / generic / manufacturer / NDC / UPC lifted out of the nested openfda block.
• ISO dates (YYYY-MM-DD) instead of YYYYMMDD.
• Drug + device + food merged into one deduped dataset; sort by date or risk score.
• Filters for product type, severity, status, state, keyword, date range, open-only, and minimum risk score.
• Re-run on a schedule to monitor new recalls for a firm, brand, or category.

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How to use it

1. Pick product types (drugs / devices / food).
2. Optionally filter: severity (Class I = most serious), status (Ongoing / Completed / Terminated), state, a search term (firm, product, or contaminant), and a date range.
3. Run → get a clean, deduped, newest-first recall table.

Input

Field	Type	Description
productTypes	array	drug, device, food (any combination).
searchTerm	string	Free text across firm, product, and reason.
classification	array	Class I / Class II / Class III severity filter.
status	string	Ongoing / Completed / Terminated.
state	string	Recalling-firm US state code (e.g. CA).
dateFrom / dateTo	string	Recall-initiation date range (YYYY-MM-DD).
openOnly	boolean	Keep only open / not-yet-terminated recalls (active risk).
minScore	integer	Keep only recalls with risk_score ≥ this (0-100).
sortBy	string	date (newest first) or risk (highest score first).
maxItems	integer	Max recalls (split across types). Default 200.
apiKey	string	Optional free openFDA key for large runs.

Example input:

{
  "productTypes": ["drug", "device"],
  "classification": ["Class I"],
  "status": "Ongoing",
  "dateFrom": "2025-01-01",
  "maxItems": 500
}

JSON output sample

{
  "recall_number": "D-1234-2025",
  "product_type": "drug",
  "classification": "Class I",
  "severity": "High",
  "severity_rank": 1,
  "risk_score": 88,
  "score_breakdown": { "severity": 40, "recency": 20, "status": 15, "distribution": 15, "harm": 10 },
  "score_rationale": "Class I (most serious — reasonable probability of serious harm/death); recall still ongoing (active risk); initiated 41 days ago; wide/nationwide distribution; harm signals: contaminat",
  "status": "Ongoing",
  "is_open": true,
  "days_open": 41,
  "time_to_classification_days": 15,
  "recalling_firm": "Acme Pharmaceuticals, Inc.",
  "brand_name": "ACME XR 20MG",
  "generic_name": "amphetamine mixed salts",
  "manufacturer": "Acme Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.",
  "product_ndc": "12345-678-90",
  "upc": null,
  "product_description": "ACME XR 20 mg extended-release capsules, 100-count bottle",
  "reason_for_recall": "Failed dissolution specifications; possible contamination",
  "distribution_pattern": "Nationwide (US)",
  "initiation_date": "2025-03-18",
  "report_date": "2025-04-02",
  "termination_date": null,
  "firm_city": "Trenton",
  "firm_state": "NJ",
  "country": "United States",
  "event_id": "90123"
}

Results render as a clean, sortable table on the Output tab and export to CSV, JSON, or Excel.

Example output

A real sample from a live run:

recall_number	product_type	classification	recalling_firm	status	risk_score
F-1671-2024	food	Class I	Palmer & Company	Terminated	70
F-1170-2024	food	Class I	HandNatural	Ongoing	58
F-1354-2023	food	Class II	Cassanos Inc	Terminated	40
F-1472-2022	food	Class II	Queen Bee Gardens, LLC	Terminated	52

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Use cases

• Recall monitoring — schedule the actor to watch for new Class I recalls in your category or for a specific firm/brand.
• Competitive & supplier risk — track recalls hitting competitors or your suppliers/contract manufacturers.
• Regulatory & quality intelligence — feed a compliance dashboard with structured enforcement data.
• Investment signals — biotech/medtech catalyst tracking (a Class I recall moves markets).
• Journalism & research — query decades of recalls by firm, product, or reason.

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Use with AI agents & automation

Run from the Apify MCP server so AI agents (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor) can query recalls as a tool call, schedule runs via Make, n8n, or Zapier to alert Slack/email on new Class I recalls, or sync the dataset to Google Sheets for a live recall dashboard. Clean flat JSON drops into compliance pipelines with no glue code.

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Pricing

Pay-per-event — you're charged per recall record delivered. Source data is the free public openFDA API, so there are no proxy or third-party costs. See the Apify Store page for the current per-result price.

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FAQ

Where does the data come from? The official openFDA API (api.fda.gov), maintained by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration — public government data.

Do I need an API key? No. It works key-free. Add a free openFDA key only for very large/high-frequency runs (higher rate limit).

What do the classifications mean? Class I = reasonable probability of serious harm or death; Class II = temporary/medically reversible harm; Class III = unlikely to cause harm. This actor maps them to High/Medium/Low.

How far back does it go? openFDA enforcement data spans well over a decade; use the date filters to scope it.

Can I monitor new recalls? Yes — schedule the actor with a dateFrom of the last few days (or a firm/brand searchTerm) and pipe results to Slack/email via Make/Zapier.

Can I export to CSV or Google Sheets? Yes — CSV, JSON, or Excel from the Output tab, or sync to Google Sheets via Make, n8n, or Zapier.

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