The Number One Reason Food Gets Recalled Is Not Bacteria. It Is the Allergen Nobody Listed.

At a glance

• In 2024, undeclared allergens or ingredients caused 101 of the 296 US food recall announcements PIRG counted: 34 percent, the largest single category.
• Peanuts and tree nuts led the list, and milk is the allergen most often left off a label over the past decade.
• Recalls in 2024 were linked to 487 hospitalizations and 19 deaths, up from 230 and 8 in 2023.
• About 33 million Americans have food allergies, according to FARE.

The issue

Ask people why food gets recalled and they say Salmonella. The numbers say otherwise. In PIRG's Food for Thought report on 2024, undeclared allergens or ingredients caused 101 of the 296 recall announcements, 34 percent of the total and the single largest category. Peanuts and tree nuts led the list, and milk is the allergen most often left off a label over the past decade.

How big the problem is

2024 recalls were also more dangerous than the year before: 487 hospitalizations, more than double the 230 in 2023, and 19 deaths versus 8. The allergen recalls have kept coming this year. In January, Karns Foods in Pennsylvania pulled its Mini Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cups because they may contain undeclared peanuts, and in March the FDA classified that recall Class I, its most serious level. In April, Loard's Ice Cream in California recalled every product it sold in retail packaging, because the containers carried no ingredient labeling at all: milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, soy, wheat, and sulfites, all undeclared at once.

What it means for you

For the roughly 33 million Americans with food allergies, an allergen recall is a medical event, not an inconvenience. The problem is time. By the day a mislabeled snack is recalled, it is often already in the pantry or the lunchbox. For the longer view of why allergens top the list, see our breakdown of undeclared allergens in 2025 recalls.

How EatSure closes the gap

Scan your grocery receipt once and EatSure keeps every item on watch, checking it against each new FDA and USDA recall, including the allergen recalls that make up the largest share. When a recall matches something you bought, you get a push notification that tells you which item matched and what to do next, instead of a press release you never saw. No receipt? You can browse every active recall without an account.