In last week’s article, we discussed the differing perspectives of consumers in the US, UK, and EU in relation to their confidence in the safety of their food supplies, with the UK and EU showing more confidence and trust than US consumers. An initial thought was that that was perhaps due to the higher number of recalls in the US. However, the statistics didn’t seem to validate that:
- Regulators in the EU and UK reported 2,518 food and beverage recalls for the first half of 2025. (Sedgwick)
- The FDA and USDA together oversaw about 300 separate food recalls over the first half of 2025 (Sedgwick)
…until we dug deeper!
Although the US (3.8 million sq mi) is geographically more than twice the size of the EU and UK combined (1.72 million sq mi), the US population (342 million) is only 66% that of the EU and UK combined (518 million). With more people in the EU/UK, there would obviously need to be more food production (or import), thus potentially leading to more recalls. However, the number of “reported” EU/UK recalls is nearly 90% higher than that of the US. So, is the EU/UK food supply less safe than that of the US? Or is it subject to stricter regulations? Or … are the numbers off?
Our research found that two of these actually tell the story: stricter regulations and noncomparable statistics.
Statistical variation
- EU data is compiled from the RASFF system and UK data from FSA, both of which use different classifications and reporting mechanisms than the US, with “recall” reports including such events as product withdrawals, alerts to Member States, border rejections, information for follow-up, and other enforcement/monitoring actions.
- EU data also combines food/feed/contact materials; can include country of origin and trade controls in the data; and may count separate but related products or units as separate events.
- US recalls include only the removal of a food/beverage item from market by a manufacturer/retailer because of a specific hazard, with a publicly announced recall notice issued. Thus, while products may also be rejected at the border, withdrawn prior to market release, etc., these are not included in recall reports.
- Additionally, the US will count as a single recall all related ingredients and products, regardless of units impacted. Thus, a recall can be that of a single lot or that of millions of units.
Regulatory variation
Another area of differentiation is that of food categories and related recalls.
- In the EU, two of the top “recall” categories are pesticide residues and mycotoxins, together accounting for more than half the recall statistics – and including “notifications” vs. just market recalls.
- In the US, recalls are rarely initiated for pesticide residues and no FDA-food mycotoxin-related recalls occurred in the US in 2024, though there were alerts about their risk in certain products. But recall statistics do not include alerts.
- Another difference with these is that the EU uses Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) to set a legal limit, while the US uses “tolerances.” Both the UK and EU frameworks are more stringent and more likely to impose bans.
So, this brings us back to the first question: Is the EU/UK food supply less safe than that of the US?
Because of all the cited differences – along with others not discussed, it is inaccurate to use raw recall statistics to say that the EU and UK have more recalls than the US; or to use the statistics as an indicator of food safety. In fact, while consumer confidence (on which we reported last week) is a very subjective metric, it is certainly an indicator of the perception of the industry’s, or a particular company’s food safety, and should be a metric of which the food industry should take note and take action.
This is particularly noteworthy because one area the UK, EU, and US have in common is that recalls and/or alerts are trending upward. While this may be due, in part, to heightened detection through technological evolutions or regulatory scrutiny and enforcement, the increases are likely to reduce consumer confidence in both the products recalled/alerted and the industry as a whole.
However, when a recall is conducted swiftly and effectively, it will remove product before anyone becomes sick; and when an alert is put out on a product or it is withdrawn prior to reaching the market, its potential impact is further reduced. Thus, while the numbers of “recalls” in the EU and UK are higher than in the US, the EU and UK “recalls” include alerts and withdrawals issued prior to a product hitting the market. This pulling of product before it could impact consumers could help to explain the 83% of those surveyed in the UK having confidence in their government to keep food safe vs only 57% of those in the US.
What this tells us is that consumer confidence in the food industry is reflective of its potential impact on them: a consumer who believes its government is keeping potentially contaminated product out of the marketplace altogether will have more confidence than one that pulls product afterward. And if the government doesn’t have the capacity to do so, it behooves each food facility to do so itself.
