US FDA Recalls Monitor: Food, Drugs & Medical Devices

Every FDA recall (food, dietary supplements, cosmetics, animal food, drugs and medical devices) from the official openFDA enforcement reports, in one clean schema across all three product types. Filter by:

• report date or "last N days",
• Class I / II / III,
• keyword (listeria, salmonella, undeclared peanut, sterility…),
• recalling firm,
• the US states the product shipped to. Each row has a parsed distributedToStates list plus a nationwide flag.

Built for grocery and pharmacy retailers, distributors, restaurant groups, compliance teams, journalists, law firms and AI agents. Schedule it daily to get a "new recalls that hit my states" feed.

What one row looks like

{"recallNumber":"F-0123-2027","productType":"food","classification":"Class I","status":"Ongoing","reportDate":"2026-10-14","recallingFirm":"Example Foods LLC","productDescription":"…","reasonForRecall":"Potential Listeria monocytogenes contamination","distributedToStates":["CA","NV","TX"],"nationwide":false,"fdaEventUrl":"https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/ires/index.cfm?Event=99872"}

Examples

• Daily Class I alert for Texas and California: {"daysBack":1,"classifications":["Class I"],"distributedToStates":["TX","CA"]}
• Listeria and salmonella food recalls this year: {"productTypes":["food"],"reportDateFrom":"2026-01-01","keywords":["listeria","salmonella"]}
• Medical-device recalls by one firm: {"productTypes":["device"],"firmContains":"Medtronic","daysBack":365}

Notes

• Dates are the FDA enforcement report dates. The FDA publishes these weekly, so a recall can appear a few days after the firm's press release.
• State matching parses the FDA's free-text distribution pattern. "Count nationwide recalls as matching" is on by default.
• Without a key, openFDA allows about 1,000 requests a day per IP, and one run uses about 1 request per 1,000 rows. Add a free openFDA key if you run large backfills.

How to use it

Pick the product types, a date window and any filters (class, keyword, firm, states), then click Start. Download the dataset as CSV, Excel or JSON, or connect it to Google Sheets, Slack or a webhook with Apify integrations.

Input

Field	Name	Type	What it does
productTypes	Product types	array	Which FDA enforcement reports to include.
daysBack	Last N days	integer	Recalls reported in the last N days. Ignored if 'Report date from' is set.
reportDateFrom	Report date from (YYYY-MM-DD)	string	Start of the FDA report-date window.
reportDateTo	Report date to (YYYY-MM-DD)	string	End of the window (default today).
classifications	Classification	array	Class I = most serious (risk of serious harm or death).
keywords	Keywords	array	Match in product description or reason, e.g. listeria, salmonella, peanut, insulin pump, sterility.
firmContains	Recalling firm	string	Only recalls by this firm (FDA full-text match).
distributedToStates	Distributed to US states	array	Two-letter codes, e.g. TX, CA. Parsed from the FDA distribution pattern text.
includeNationwide	Count nationwide recalls as matching	boolean	When filtering by state, keep recalls distributed nationwide.
status	Status	string	Recall status filter (empty = any).
maxItems	Max items	integer	Upper bound on rows.
apiKey	openFDA API key (optional)	string	Free key from open.fda.gov raises the daily request limit. Not needed for normal runs.

Output fields

Field	Meaning
recallNumber	FDA recall number
productType	food, drug or device
classification	Class I, II or III
status	Ongoing, Completed, Terminated
reportDate	FDA enforcement report date
recallInitiationDate	Date the firm started the recall
classificationDate	Date FDA classified it
terminationDate	Date terminated, if any
recallingFirm	Firm
firmCity	Firm city
firmState	Firm state
firmCountry	Firm country
productDescription	Product description incl. sizes/UPC
reasonForRecall	Reason
productQuantity	Quantity recalled
codeInfo	Lot / expiry codes
distributionPattern	FDA distribution text
distributedToStates	US state codes parsed from distribution text
nationwide	Distributed nationwide
voluntaryMandated	Voluntary or FDA mandated
initialFirmNotification	How customers were notified
eventId	FDA recall event ID
brandName	Brand (drugs, from openFDA)
genericName	Generic name (drugs)
productNdc	NDC codes (drugs)
deviceName	Device name (devices)
deviceClass	Device class (devices)
fdaEventUrl	FDA recall event page
source	Data source

Use it from the API

Run it from your own code with the Apify API (replace $APIFY_TOKEN with your own token):

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/plainfetch-data~us-fda-recalls/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"productTypes":["food"],"classifications":["Class I"],"daysBack":7}'

It also works with the Apify Python and JavaScript clients, Make, Zapier, n8n and MCP-based AI agents.

FAQ

Where does the data come from? The official openFDA enforcement-report endpoints for food, drugs and devices. Each row links to the FDA recall event.

How do I get only the most serious recalls? Set classifications to ["Class I"]. Class I means a reasonable chance of serious harm or death.

Can I get a daily feed for my states? Yes. Use daysBack: 1 (or 7 for weekly) with distributedToStates, and schedule the Actor in Apify Schedules.

Do I need an API key? No. An optional free openFDA key only raises the daily request limit for large backfills.

Why is a recall missing that was in the news today? The FDA adds recalls to enforcement reports weekly, so a recall can appear a few days after the firm's press release.

Pricing

Free while in beta: you pay only your Apify platform usage. Pay-per-event pricing may be added later, with the advance notice Apify requires.

Data source

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, openFDA (https://open.fda.gov/apis/), released under CC0. openFDA terms: https://open.fda.gov/terms/. The FDA says not to rely on openFDA for medical decisions. Plainfetch is an independent tool. It isn't affiliated with or endorsed by the FDA.

Local development

pip install -r requirements.txt pytest
python -m pytest tests
python -m src   # reads storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json