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

Monitor and export US FDA recalls for drugs, medical devices, and food in a single run - straight from the official openFDA enforcement API.

What it does

This FDA recalls scraper pulls US FDA recall enforcement data for drugs, medical devices, and food by querying the public openFDA enforcement API (no API key required) and returning one clean, normalized record per recall. It unifies all three FDA product categories in one place, so you no longer have to run a separate FDA drug recall API query, an FDA medical device recall search, and an FDA food recall API call to assemble a complete picture. Each record captures the recall's severity (Class I/II/III), status, product and reason for recall, the recalling firm and its location, distribution pattern, brand and generic names, key dates, and the FDA recall number. Filter by product type, keyword, classification, status, firm state, and date range, then schedule it for continuous FDA recall monitoring and alerting.

Who it's for

• Pharma, medical-device, and food-safety compliance / regulatory affairs teams tracking recalls in their category
• Quality assurance teams monitoring their own products and lot/batch codes
• Supply-chain and supplier-risk managers surveilling vendors and contract manufacturers
• Insurers and underwriters assessing product-liability and recall exposure
• Legal / class-action researchers building recall and incident timelines
• Journalists and data teams covering public-health and consumer-safety stories
• Developers who want structured openFDA enforcement data without writing and maintaining API plumbing

What you get / Output

One row per recall, with the following fields:

Field	Description
productType	FDA category: drug, device, or food
recallNumber	FDA-assigned recall identifier
classification	Severity: Class I (most serious), Class II, or Class III
status	Recall status (e.g. Ongoing, Completed, Terminated)
productDescription	Description of the recalled product
reasonForRecall	Why the product was recalled
recallingFirm	Company that issued the recall
city	City of the recalling firm
state	US state of the recalling firm
country	Country of the recalling firm
distributionPattern	Where the recalled product was distributed
brandNames	Brand name(s), when available
genericNames	Generic name(s), when available
reportDate	Date the recall was reported/published by FDA
recallInitiationDate	Date the firm initiated the recall
terminationDate	Date the recall was terminated, when applicable

Export the dataset to CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the run's Storage tab, or pull it programmatically via the Apify API.

Input / How to query

All filters are optional - run with defaults to pull recent recalls across all three categories, or narrow the query:

• Product types - any combination of drug, device, and food (defaults to all three)
• Keyword - match against product description, reason for recall, or recalling firm (e.g. listeria, salmonella, a drug name, or a company name)
• Classification - Class I, Class II, or Class III
• Status - e.g. Ongoing, Completed, Terminated
• Recalling firm state - two-letter US state code (e.g. CA, NJ)
• Reported since / Reported until - date window (YYYY-MM-DD) on the FDA report date
• Max results - upper bound on recalls returned per run

Example use cases

• Track a supplier or manufacturer: set a keyword to a firm name and schedule weekly runs to catch every new recall tied to that company.
• Class I early warning: filter to Class I across all product types to surface only the most serious, potential-harm recalls for immediate triage.
• Food-safety pathogen watch: filter product type to food with keyword listeria or salmonella and a rolling date window.
• Device-recall register: pull all device recalls for a given state and date range to feed a compliance dashboard.
• Recall dataset for analysis: export a full historical slice to CSV for BI, risk scoring, or research.

Recurring use / scheduling

Add the actor to an Apify Schedule (for example, every Monday) with a Reported since date set to roughly the last week to poll for new FDA recalls on an ongoing basis. Because the actor returns a stable recallNumber per recall, you can dedupe incrementally on that field to keep only genuinely new records and wire the fresh rows into email, Slack, or webhook recall alerts. Note that FDA publishes enforcement data on a roughly weekly cycle, so the newest recalls can lag one to two weeks.

FAQ

How do I get FDA recall data via API?

This actor queries the official openFDA enforcement API for you and returns normalized, ready-to-use records - no openFDA API key or query-building required. Run it in the Apify Console or trigger it via the Apify API, then read results from the dataset.

How can I monitor FDA drug, device, and food recalls in one place?

That is exactly what this actor is built for. One run covers drugs, medical devices, and food together, so you get a unified recall feed instead of stitching together three separate single-category tools.

How do I export FDA recall data to CSV or Excel?

After a run, open the dataset in the run's Storage tab and export to CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML with one click, or fetch it programmatically through the Apify dataset API.

How do I search FDA recalls by company or recalling firm?

Set the keyword filter to the company name - it matches against the recalling firm (and product description and reason), and each result includes the recallingFirm, city, and state fields.

How often is openFDA recall (enforcement) data updated?

The FDA publishes enforcement (recall) data on a roughly weekly cycle, so the freshest recalls can appear one to two weeks after initiation. Scheduling a weekly run keeps your dataset current.

How do I filter FDA recalls by classification (Class I, II, III)?

Use the classification filter to restrict results to Class I, Class II, or Class III. Class I is the most serious (risk of death or serious harm); Class III is least serious.

How can I set up automated alerts for new FDA recalls?

Schedule the actor with a rolling Reported since date, dedupe on recallNumber, and connect the new rows to an integration (email, Slack, or webhook) so each run pushes only newly published recalls.

What is the openFDA enforcement endpoint and how do I use it?

The openFDA enforcement endpoints expose the FDA's public drug, device, and food recall records. This actor calls those endpoints on your behalf and normalizes the fields into a consistent schema, so you do not have to learn the endpoint syntax yourself.

How do I track recalls for a specific manufacturer or supplier?

Set the keyword to the manufacturer or supplier name and add it to a recurring schedule. Every run returns any new recalls mentioning that firm, giving you continuous supplier surveillance.

Can I get FDA recalls filtered by state or date range?

Yes. Use the recalling firm state filter (two-letter code) and the Reported since / Reported until date window to scope results by geography and time.

Data source & notes

• Source: the official US FDA openFDA enforcement (recall) API for drugs, devices, and food. This is public, government-published data and does not require an API key.
• Coverage: US FDA-regulated recalls only. This actor does not cover other agencies (such as CPSC or NHTSA) or non-US regulators - it stays focused on FDA drug, device, and food recalls.
• Freshness: FDA publishes enforcement data on a roughly weekly cadence, so newly initiated recalls may take one to two weeks to appear.
• Fields: availability of optional fields (such as brand/generic names or termination date) depends on what the FDA published for a given recall.