In the recent months, food recall alerts have started to feel like an increasingly common occurrence. This week, Treehouse Foods Inc., announced it was voluntarily recalling more than 600 varieties of frozen waffles — which were sold under various brand names, including Gather & Good, Kodiak Cakes and Great Value — due to the possibility of listeria contamination.
Then last week, an ongoing listeria recall was reissued to include an additional nearly 2 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry items that may be contaminated, raising the recall to a total of nearly 12 million pounds of product. As Salon reported, the recalled foods, produced by the Oklahoma-based company BrucePac, were sold at major retailers nationwide, including Trader Joe's, Walmart, Aldi, Target, H-E-B, Giant Eagle and Kroger.
Amid the recall alert, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) also specified that some of the potentially tainted products had been distributed to schools nationwide.
This series of alarming food recalls has left many parents grappling with a growing sense of unease. Each notification serves as a stark reminder that the meals they prepare for their children — once deemed safe — can suddenly become potential sources of harm, as can school breakfasts and lunches. While food safety experts stress that the recall system functions primarily as a precaution, with only a small fraction of recalled products causing illness, the reality is that parents often bear the emotional toll of these alerts.
However, health and legal experts say there are also steps parents can take to feel more in control of their family’s food safety.
Amie Alexander, a registered dietitian at Nutri Peak, said first and foremost, consumers shouldn’t feel like they have to panic whenever news of a recall hits the headlines.
“It's overwhelming to think that something as straightforward as the food you're packing for your kids, something you expect to be safe and healthy, could make them sick,” Alexander said. “However, while serious, it's important to remember that the recall system exists as a precaution for consumers.”
For example, it made headlines when, in June, it was reported that the Food and Drug Administration had already “removed over 100 food and beverage products from the market deemed in ‘violation’ of agency regulations.”
It seems like a staggering number of recalls, but according to data reviewed by Newsweek, among the 108 food and beverage products recalled by the FDA from January to May, only eight caused “harm or disease to at least one consumer.”
During the same time period last year, eight food and beverage products again—but out of only 98 recalled—were linked to illness or negative effects.
Alexander continued: “Often, potential hazards are caught well in advance of anyone falling ill.”
That said, for busy parents, even simply having to monitor the USDA and FDA for recall alerts can start to feel daunting. After all, there is already a lot of unseen labor involved in feeding a family, from the juggling act that is meal planning to accommodate for different tastes and needs to grocery shopping. Statistics also show, these tasks primarily fall to mothers.
According to a 2019 time-use survey sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in households with both female and male household leads and one or more children under the age of 18, “80% of mothers say they are the household member who usually prepares the meals.”
That’s the same as the share who say they are the primary grocery shopper, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
“For mothers specifically, it’s more of the emotional labor we have to take on because the vast majority of us —not me, though — are ‘food people,’” said Margaret Quinlan, a researcher at the University of North Carolina who studies the intersection between parenting and health. “We monitor what we don’t have, buy groceries, keep up with the kids' tastes and safe foods, etcetera.”
According to Quinlan, children, particularly those with pre-existing medical conditions that lead to school absences, can face disciplinary actions at the district level if they become ill from food items — another stress that parents don’t need.
“In my research partner's kids' school, they can lose their magnet spot if they are absent too much. My kids could be retained for missing too much school,” she explained. “Parents don’t need to worry about dealing with other bureaucracies because corporations can’t be bothered to follow the rules. They can afford to pay to make the problem disappear, but parents might have to do more to deal with it.”
Quinlan continued: “It is stressful and I feel like a Victorian before food regulations and inspections.”
Sylvia Smith, a relationship and parenting expert at Marriage.com, echoed Quinlan’s sentiments.
“With each notification of yet another recall — whether it's contaminated prepackaged lunches or potentially unsafe food on the cafeteria menu — your alarm goes through the roof,” Smith wrote via email. “Food safety is one of those things that, as a parent, you just can't compromise on; and when recalls happen, sometimes it feels like the situation is beyond your control.”
The key, she said, lies in trying to balance vigilance with a pragmatic approach.
“Recalls are usually issued as a precautionary measure, meaning there is a good chance the food in question may not have harmed anyone,” Smith said. “I do think it's important for parents to stay educated about potential risks by keeping an eye on official recall alerts from agencies like the FDA or USDA. The ways of dealing with it are the introduction of a food safety system in your home, like regularly checking product codes or batch numbers that will help you manage the stress and not be overwhelmed.”
For parents who still find themselves weary from news of another recall, Smith said it may be time to rethink their approach to shopping for some grocery items.
“On a practical level, you may limit your reliance on highly processed foods that are more likely to figure in a widespread recall,” Smith said. “I also encourage you to get to know local vendors or farmers who can help you feel more secure about the food you're serving.”
It’s sensible advice, but Quinlan points out that some of it may not be realistic for every family, especially in the short-term. “There is judgment for parents who send their kids in with processed foods, but I have a picky eater, and if his safe foods are not safe, that is an issue for our family,” she said.
On a broader scale, many parents' anxieties about the recent surge in recalls stem from a sense of powerlessness when it comes to holding corporations — especially repeat offenders — accountable.. But Oliver Morrisey, the owner and director of Empower Wills & Estate Lawyers, believes that parents actually have more power in these situations than they realize.
“Let’s talk about class action lawsuits for a second,” Morissey wrote via email. “If you’re seeing recalls from the same company or supplier repeatedly, it’s worth considering whether there’s negligence at play. Parents can come together to file a class action lawsuit, which is a way to hold these companies accountable on a larger scale.”
According to Morissey, the idea is that if enough people take action together, it’s not just about compensating for any harm already done as a result of the recalled food, but about forcing companies to improve their safety measures.
“It’s more than just reacting to recalls,” he continued. “It’s about preventing future ones by making it clear that these lapses aren’t acceptable. This kind of collective legal action is incredibly powerful and often pushes companies to address issues they might otherwise ignore.”
Parents can also advocate for stricter oversight of the food provided to schools and other institutions that serve children. They can campaign for mandatory and more frequent food inspections, as well as push for harsher penalties for companies that fail to meet safety standards.
“This doesn’t have to be done individually,” Morissey wrote. “You can collaborate with other parents and legal experts to make a case to local governments or school boards. The goal here is to make sure that safety measures are strengthened across the board so that these recalls don’t become such a regular occurrence.”
