FDA Food Recall Enforcement Reports Scraper

Extract FDA food recall enforcement reports directly from the official OpenFDA API. This Actor provides structured access to 28,000+ food safety recall actions issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, covering everything from Class I dangerous recalls to Class III low-risk recalls. Search by recall classification, recalling company, state, recall status, date range, or free-text keywords like "salmonella", "listeria", or "undeclared allergen".

This scraper is purpose-built for food safety data — if you need FDA drug recall data, adverse event reports, or other pharmaceutical endpoints, check out our separate FDA OpenFDA Scraper which covers drug-related endpoints.

Key Features

• No API key required — works out of the box with the public OpenFDA API
• Powerful filtering — combine classification, company, state, status, date range, and keyword filters
• All recall severities — Class I (dangerous/life-threatening), Class II (temporary health risk), Class III (unlikely adverse effects)
• Complete recall details — product descriptions, reason for recall, distribution patterns, lot codes, company addresses
• Automatic pagination — fetches up to 25,000 records across multiple API pages
• Rate limit handling — built-in retry logic with exponential backoff
• Structured JSON output — clean, normalized field names ready for analysis or integration

Data Fields

Field	Description	Example
recallNumber	FDA recall number	"F-0123-2024"
eventId	FDA event identifier	"90123"
classification	Recall severity class	"Class I"
status	Current recall status	"Ongoing"
recallingFirm	Company issuing the recall	"Tyson Foods Inc"
productDescription	Description of recalled product	"Frozen chicken nuggets, 5 lb bags"
reasonForRecall	Why the product was recalled	"Potential Salmonella contamination"
productQuantity	Amount of product recalled	"50,000 lbs"
productType	Type of product	"Food"
voluntaryMandated	Whether recall is voluntary or mandated	"Voluntary: Firm Initiated"
initialFirmNotification	How the firm notified the public	"Press Release"
distributionPattern	Where the product was distributed	"Nationwide"
recallInitiationDate	Date recall was initiated	"20240115"
centerClassificationDate	Date FDA classified the recall	"20240201"
terminationDate	Date recall was terminated	"20240601"
reportDate	Date recall was reported to FDA	"20240120"
codeInfo	Product lot/code information	"Use by dates of 03/15/2024"
address1	Company street address	"123 Main Street"
city	Company city	"Chicago"
state	Company state	"IL"
postalCode	Company postal code	"60601"
country	Company country	"United States"
openfda	Additional FDA product identifiers	{...}

How to Scrape FDA Food Recall Data

Step 1: Configure Your Search

Choose your filters on the input form. All filters are optional — leave them blank to get the most recent recalls across all categories.

Common search examples:

• Find all Class I recalls (most dangerous): Set Classification to "Class I"
• Find recalls by a specific company: Enter the company name in "Recalling Firm"
• Find salmonella-related recalls: Enter "salmonella" in "Search Query"
• Find recalls from California in 2024: Set State to "CA", Start Date to "2024-01-01", End Date to "2024-12-31"

Step 2: Run the Actor

Click "Start" to run the Actor. It will query the OpenFDA API, paginate through results, and save them to the dataset.

Step 3: Download Your Data

Once the run completes, download your results in JSON, CSV, Excel, or other formats from the Dataset tab.

Input Example

{
    "searchQuery": "salmonella",
    "classification": "Class I",
    "state": "CA",
    "startDate": "2023-01-01",
    "endDate": "2024-12-31",
    "maxResults": 500
}

Output Example

{
    "recallNumber": "F-0456-2024",
    "eventId": "91234",
    "classification": "Class I",
    "status": "Ongoing",
    "recallingFirm": "Example Foods LLC",
    "productDescription": "Frozen pre-cooked chicken strips, 12 oz and 24 oz packages",
    "reasonForRecall": "Product may be contaminated with Salmonella Enteritidis",
    "productQuantity": "125,000 lbs",
    "productType": "Food",
    "voluntaryMandated": "Voluntary: Firm Initiated",
    "initialFirmNotification": "Press Release",
    "distributionPattern": "Nationwide distribution in retail stores",
    "recallInitiationDate": "20240315",
    "centerClassificationDate": "20240320",
    "terminationDate": null,
    "reportDate": "20240318",
    "codeInfo": "Best By dates of 06/15/2024 through 09/30/2024, lot codes A123, A124, A125",
    "moreCodeInfo": null,
    "address1": "456 Industrial Blvd",
    "address2": null,
    "city": "Fresno",
    "state": "CA",
    "postalCode": "93706",
    "country": "United States",
    "openfda": null
}

Pricing

This Actor uses the public OpenFDA API, which requires no authentication. Compute costs are minimal since it makes lightweight HTTP requests (no browser rendering).

Cost Component	Price
Actor Start	$0.00005
Per Result	$0.002

Example cost estimates:

• 100 recalls: ~$0.20
• 1,000 recalls: ~$2.00
• 10,000 recalls: ~$20.00

Users also pay standard Apify platform compute costs on top of Actor pricing.

Recall Classification Guide

Understanding FDA recall classifications is essential for filtering results effectively:

• Class I: The most serious type. The product could cause serious health problems or death. Examples: food contaminated with botulism toxin, undeclared allergens that could cause anaphylaxis.
• Class II: The product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health effects. The probability of serious harm is low. Examples: mislabeled nutritional information, minor contamination.
• Class III: The product is unlikely to cause any adverse health effects. Examples: minor labeling issues, quality defects that don't affect safety.

Other Useful Actors

• FDA OpenFDA Scraper — Drug-related FDA data (adverse events, labeling, NDC)
• SBIR Awards Scraper — Government grant and contract data

FAQ

Q: Do I need an FDA API key? A: No. The OpenFDA API is free and publicly accessible. Without a key, you get 240 requests per minute, which is sufficient for most use cases.

Q: What is the maximum number of results I can retrieve? A: The OpenFDA API limits pagination to 25,000 results (skip parameter max). If your search returns more than 25,000 results, narrow your search with additional filters.

Q: How often is the FDA data updated? A: The OpenFDA database is updated regularly as new recall enforcement reports are filed. New recalls typically appear within days of the official FDA announcement.

Q: Can I search for specific products like "peanut butter" or "baby formula"? A: Yes. Use the "Search Query" field to search for any term. The query searches across both the product description and reason for recall fields.

Q: Why do some recalls have a null terminationDate? A: A null termination date means the recall is still ongoing or has not yet been formally terminated by the FDA.

Q: What does the openfda field contain? A: The openfda field may contain additional product identifiers assigned by the FDA, such as product codes or industry codes. It is null when no additional identifiers are available.

Legal Disclaimer

This Actor accesses publicly available data from the OpenFDA API, which is a public government data source provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The data is in the public domain and freely available for any use.

This Actor does not bypass any authentication, CAPTCHA, or access controls. All data is retrieved through the official public API endpoints as intended by the FDA.

The data provided is for informational purposes only. Always verify recall information directly with the FDA for critical food safety decisions. The Actor developer is not responsible for the accuracy of the underlying FDA data.

For questions or support, contact us through the Apify Store.