# FDA Recall Watch (`signalfoundryhq/fda-recall-watch`) Actor

Search official FDA recalls for food, drugs, and medical devices. Filter by class and keyword, export structured results, or enable an unseen-recall monitor.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/signalfoundryhq/fda-recall-watch.md
- **Developed by:** [Signal Foundry](https://apify.com/signalfoundryhq) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Automation, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## FDA Recall Watch

**Unofficial community Actor. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This is not medical or regulatory advice.**

Track newly reported food, drug, and medical-device recalls from the official openFDA enforcement APIs. The Actor normalizes three datasets into one stable output and remembers what it has already delivered.

### What it delivers

- recall number, category, classification, status, and recalling firm;
- product description, reason, distribution pattern, and code information;
- normalized report, initiation, and termination dates;
- stateful deduplication for scheduled monitors and webhooks.

The optional API key increases openFDA request limits but is not required. `searchText` is applied to the firm, product, and reason fields after retrieval, so ordinary words work without learning openFDA query syntax.

The default is a repeatable snapshot. Enable `onlyNew` and keep the same `stateKey` for a scheduled monitor that emits unseen recall numbers only.

#### Example input

```json
{
  "categories": ["food", "drug", "device"],
  "classifications": ["Class I", "Class II"],
  "searchText": "battery",
  "lookbackDays": 30,
  "stateKey": "battery-safety",
  "onlyNew": true,
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

### Pricing

The live price shown by Apify Store is the source of truth. The Actor is prepared for pay per result after creator payout onboarding; until the Store explicitly displays that model, no separate per-result fee is promised.

### Local development

```bash
npm install
export ACTOR_TEST_PAY_PER_EVENT=true
npm test
npm start
```

# Actor input Schema

## `categories` (type: `array`):

Allowed values: food, drug, device.

## `classifications` (type: `array`):

Optional: Class I, Class II, Class III.

## `searchText` (type: `string`):

Optional case-insensitive text filter.

## `lookbackDays` (type: `integer`):

Include recalls reported within this many calendar days.

## `apiKey` (type: `string`):

Optional. Increases official API rate limits.

## `stateKey` (type: `string`):

Keep unchanged across scheduled runs; use another key for a separate monitor.

## `onlyNew` (type: `boolean`):

Enable for recurring schedules to skip recall numbers already delivered under this state key.

## `resetState` (type: `boolean`):

Forget saved recall numbers before this run and replay the lookback window.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many paid dataset rows.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "categories": [
    "food",
    "drug",
    "device"
  ],
  "classifications": [],
  "lookbackDays": 365,
  "stateKey": "default",
  "onlyNew": false,
  "resetState": false,
  "maxItems": 25
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("signalfoundryhq/fda-recall-watch").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("signalfoundryhq/fda-recall-watch").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call signalfoundryhq/fda-recall-watch --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,signalfoundryhq/fda-recall-watch"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/zQP6vbGgg1494wXTp/builds/dC57P8ulPqNBR7K2H/openapi.json