Why fewer products were recalled is hard to answer
The number of recalls stayed high in 2024 but fewer units of products got recalled.
There were 3,232 product recalls in 2024, the second-highest level in six years after 2023 previously set that milestone, according to claims administrator Sedgwick.
However, the number of products recalled fell to around 680.9 million units in 2024, the lowest level since 2015, Sedgwick said.
Sedgwick didn't share the exact number of units recalled by year or category.
It is difficult to say exactly why the number of units recalled continues to fall while the number of product recalls remains high," said Chris Harvey, senior vice president of brand protection for Sedgwick, in a press release.
He said some reasons may be manufacturers are making smaller batches, production could be down or there is better tracing by companies to identify defective items.
By industry, Sedgwick said the consumer-products sector had its second-highest number of recalls in the last eight years with 299 announcements and the medical-device sector recorded a four-year high with 1,059announcements.
The pharmaceutical industry also hit an 11-year low for the number of products recalled and recall announcements fell to 359 in 2024 from 517 in 2023, Sedgwick said.
On the other hand, Sedgwick said recalls via the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which often focuses on large quanties of meat and vegetables, reached a six-year high for the number of units recalled despite 2024 accounting for thesecond-lowest number of announcements over the last decade.
ConsumerAffairs previously reported thatbacteria recalls hit a five-year high in 2024, boosted by a surge of recalls among the germsListeria monocytogenes and Salmonella.
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Posted: 2025-02-19 00:08:49
