Product Recall Watch (Unofficial): FDA, CPSC and NHTSA Recalls in One Feed

Know the day a product you make, sell or insure is recalled. This Actor pulls new recalls from three U.S. agencies and returns them in one normalized format: FDA drug, medical-device and food enforcement reports, CPSC consumer-product recalls, and NHTSA vehicle, equipment, tire and child-seat recalls. Each row names the firms and their roles (recalling firm, manufacturer, importer, distributor, retailer), the product, its UPC, NDC, model or vehicle identifiers, the hazard or FDA class, units affected, the remedy and a link back to the agency record.

Add your suppliers, brands or catalog codes to the watchlist and every matching recall is flagged. Run it on a schedule with New since last run and each run returns only recalls you haven't seen.

Built for:

• Retailers and marketplaces: match recalled UPCs and model numbers against your catalog and pull listings fast.
• Quality, compliance and supplier-risk teams: watch your suppliers, contract manufacturers and your own brands across agencies.
• Product-liability law firms, insurers and claims teams: a daily list of new recalls with firms, hazards, units and injury counts.
• Trade press and analysts: one clean feed instead of three agency formats.
• AI agents and data teams: clean JSON, no API key, no login.

Sample output

{
  "agency": "CPSC",
  "feed": "cpsc",
  "recallId": "27012",
  "title": "Aria Child Recalls Strollers Due to Laceration and Fall Hazards",
  "productCategory": "consumer product",
  "productType": "Strollers",
  "productNames": ["Qbit strollers"],
  "reportDate": "2026-10-16",
  "hazard": "A gap in the stroller's folding side hinge can pinch a child's finger, posing a laceration hazard.",
  "hazardTypes": ["Laceration"],
  "recallingFirm": "Aria Child Inc.",
  "firms": [
    {"name": "Aria Child Inc.", "role": "importer"},
    {"name": "Example Baby Depot Inc.", "role": "retailer"}
  ],
  "manufacturerCountries": ["China"],
  "upcs": ["070847001232", "070847001249"],
  "modelNumbers": ["QB-100, QB-110"],
  "unitsAffected": 29400,
  "remedy": "Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled strollers and contact Aria Child for a free repair kit.",
  "remedyOptions": ["Repair"],
  "incidentCount": 71,
  "injuryCount": 5,
  "sourceUrl": "(link to the recall page on cpsc.gov)",
  "watchlistMatch": true,
  "watchlistMatches": ["firm: Aria Child"],
  "attribution": "Data provided by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission"
}

(Illustrative example; field list abbreviated.) FDA rows add the FDA class (I, II or III), status, recall start date, lot and code information, distribution and the recalling firm's city, state and ZIP. NHTSA rows list the vehicles (make, model, year), model-year range, component, production dates, owner-notification date and the manufacturer's campaign number.

Inputs

• What to fetch: the last N days (default 30), New since last run for a schedule, or a fixed date range of up to a year.
• Agencies and feeds: FDA drugs, FDA devices, FDA food, CPSC and NHTSA. All are on by default.
• Firm watchlist: company names; matching ignores case, punctuation and words like Inc or LLC.
• UPC, NDC and model watchlist: UPCs or GTINs (leading zeros and check digit optional), NDCs and model numbers.
• Only return watchlist matches: turn the feed into an alert list.
• FDA classes and keywords to narrow the feed.
• Max recalls (default 50). When there are more, each feed gets a fair share.
• Advanced: which date the window uses (published, or published or updated), cursor name, records read per feed, and your own openFDA key (optional; not needed).

Quick start: keep the defaults and click Start to see the last 30 days from all three agencies. For alerts, add your suppliers or catalog codes to the watchlists, choose New since last run, and schedule the Actor daily. Results appear in the Recalls, Products, firms and codes, Hazards and remedies, Vehicles (NHTSA) and Watchlist tabs, newest first. The Watchlist tab lists every returned recall with its watchlistMatch column (true when the recall matches your watchlist, and watchlistMatches says which entry matched); Apify tabs can't hide rows, so sort on that column, or turn on Only return watchlist matches to get matches only. Each run also saves a run summary with the status of every source.

Pricing

Pay per event: you pay only for recalls returned.

Event	Free plan	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Recall returned	$0.0036	$0.003	$0.0027	$0.0024
Watchlist match (add-on)	$0.012	$0.01	$0.009	$0.008

That's $2.40–$3.60 per 1,000 recalls, plus Apify's standard Actor start fee. The watchlist add-on is charged only for returned recalls that match your watchlist; with an empty watchlist it is never charged. Recalls removed by your filters, recalls already returned (in "New since last run"), sources that fail and runs that fail are not charged. Set Max cost per run to cap spending; the Actor stops cleanly at the cap, and stops before a watchlist match when what is left would not cover both the recall and the add-on.

Integrations and API

Schedule it in Apify and send new recalls or watchlist matches to Google Sheets, Slack, email, Make, Zapier or n8n through Apify's integrations, or call it from the Apify API. AI agents can use it through Apify's MCP server.

Limits

• FDA publishes weekly. openFDA's enforcement data is updated once a week, so FDA rows arrive in weekly batches and a 1-day window often has no FDA rows. Use 14 days or more.
• NHTSA file size. NHTSA recalls come from the agency's daily flat file (about 14 MB, covering reports from 2010 on). Each run downloads it once and keeps only the window; this takes a few seconds. Recalls reported before 2010 are not covered.
• NHTSA posting lag. By default an NHTSA recall is dated by its report date (when NHTSA received the manufacturer's report), but it reaches NHTSA's file days or sometimes weeks later. A recall posted late can therefore fall before a short window. For New since last run, keep Days to look back at 30 or more, or set Which date the window uses to Published or updated in the window, which dates NHTSA rows by the day they were added to the file.
• No VIN ranges. NHTSA's file lists makes, models, model years and production dates, not VIN ranges.
• CPSC injury details are counts only. The Actor reads the number of incidents, injuries and deaths from CPSC's text and never returns the narrative. Counts are left empty when the text gives no clear number.
• UPCs inside FDA text. FDA rows carry UPCs only when the FDA text or openFDA's drug labeling lists them, and only barcodes with a valid check digit are kept.
• Shared FDA limit. Without a key, openFDA allows a limited number of requests per day per network address. The Actor makes one request per FDA feed for a normal run and stops that source cleanly if openFDA says the limit is reached; CPSC and NHTSA rows are still returned.
• A date range covers up to 366 days per run. Each feed reads up to Max records to read per feed records in the window.

FAQ

Why do FDA recalls show up a week or more after they started? FDA lists a recall in its weekly enforcement report once it has been classified, which can be weeks after the firm began the recall. The row carries both dates: reportDate (published) and recallDate (started).

What does "New since last run" remember? The recalls it returned under the cursor name, for the length of your look-back window. Use a separate cursor name for each watch you schedule.

Are phone numbers, emails or people's names included? The Actor never returns contact blocks (CPSC's consumer contact details, NHTSA's notes), injury narratives or person-name fields. Phone numbers and emails inside other text are replaced with "[removed]", and in distribution, lot-code and corrective-action text, sentences that point to a contact are dropped. Text that names a person by title (such as "Mr.") or in a court-case caption is blanked. Firm addresses are limited to city, state, ZIP and country. An FDA or CPSC recall whose firm name looks like a private person's name (no business word such as Inc, LLC or Foods) is left out, and other person-like names are removed from the firm list. NHTSA firms are the manufacturers that filed the recall with NHTSA, so they are always kept.

What do the firm roles mean? They come from the agency: FDA names the recalling firm (and, for drugs, the labeler); CPSC lists manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers; NHTSA names the manufacturer that filed the recall.

How does UPC matching work? Digits are compared with leading zeros removed, and a code typed without its last (check) digit still matches. A product-level NDC matches its package NDCs.

Data sources and responsible use

Data comes from three public U.S. government sources: openFDA's drug, device and food enforcement endpoints (CC0); the CPSC Recalls web service on SaferProducts.gov; and NHTSA's recalls flat file. Data provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Data provided by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Data provided by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Actor identifies itself with a company name and contact email, paces its requests, retries server errors, and stops using a source for the rest of the run if that source signals throttling or refuses access. Output is limited to business-entity and product facts. This is an unofficial tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by the FDA, CPSC, NHTSA or any U.S. government agency. Agency data can contain errors and can change after publication; always check the agency's own record before acting on a recall.

Support

Found a bug or need a field? Open an issue on this Actor's Issues tab and we'll respond there.

Maintained by Saiber Operations LLC.