Food for Thought – Archive of PIRG reports

Public Interest Research has drilled down on food safety issues for years, with past research on food recall trends, grocery stores' effort to notify shoppers and the impact of haphazard date labels on food packaging.

Here are our past reports and research
on food safety and food recalls:

Food for Thought 2025
Hospitalizations and deaths doubled in 2024 compared with 2023 as a few high-profile outbreaks grabbed headlines.

Food for Thought 2024
Why do so many people get sick long after a food recall is announced?

Food for Thought 2023
Why nearly 300 foods were recalled in 2022, plus Salmonella recalls are up but meat recalls remain well below pre-pandemic levels.

Food for Thought 2022 – Our your groceries safe?
Serious food recalls are all too common, and this country doesn’t have a good system to alert us.

Food recalls – 2021 trends and what they mean for you
The pandemic wreaked havoc on our food system.

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