2024 saw an increase in the amount of recalled products in the United States, more than there had been seen in the previous three years. According to TODAY.com “There’s been a 20-25% increase in recalls over the last two to three years.” As of October 31, 2024 there had been 1,908 products recalled.
One of the more prominent incidents that occurred was the E. coli breakout that was associated with McDonalds. 14 states were been impacted, resulting in 90 people getting infected, 27 being hospitalized, and one person passing away. The CDC and USDA investigated the reasoning for people getting sick and determined it was likely due to the slivered onions. Many different people reported eating different types of quarter pounders that included the slivered onions.
McDonalds responded to this problem by removing the item that was on the menu. In a recent statement McDonalds stated, “Thank you to all the public health authorities for their partnership and collaboration, which allowed McDonald’s to take swift and decisive action to protect our customers and public health.” McDonalds has since then stopped receiving slivered onions from Taylors Farm and now gets their slivered onions from another farm.
Taylors farm responded, “We have preemptively recalled yellow onions from our Taylor Farms Colorado facility that were sent to select foodservice customers.” Now they have stated that all Taylors Farm products in the market are safe to consume.
According to Cleveland Clinic, E. coli is a group of bacteria that can cause an infection in your gut and other parts of your body. Most of the time, it can live in your gut without hurting you. But some strains of E. coli can make you sick with diarrhea, vomit and a fever.
Another large outbreak that occurred earlier in 2024 involved Listeria and it had to do with people consuming Boar’s Head deli meat. This occurred around the summertime and the probable cause for there being a Listeria outbreak was contaminated liverwurst. There were unsanitary conditions which led to the listeria spreading into other different types of meat and led to their being way more people getting sick because meats that were not infected got contaminated with the liverwurst. Boars Head Deli Meat responded to the problem by stating, “We regret and deeply apologize for the recent Listeria monocytogenes contamination in our liverwurst product. We understand the gravity of this situation and the profound impact it has had on affected families. Comprehensive measures are being implemented to prevent such an incident from ever happening again.” Since this happened they have permanently discontinued selling liverwurst in all of their markets. By the end of the outbreak 10 people had died.
Overall, it is hoped that this trend will not continue in 2025.
