How to Monitor FDA Recalls

The most recent FDA (Food and Drug Administration) recall as of June 12^th, 2008 was the well announced "raw red tomato" Salmonella alert. Or was it?

As a full time student and a part time employee, I sometimes find it difficult to catch the evening news before heading off to bed at night. I realize that you too are very busy with hectic schedules just like me. Maybe your days are even busier than what I'm describing here?

I have come across the FDA's website recently, wishing I had come across it long ago. The FDA is responsible for the safety regulation of foods, drugs, dietary supplements, vaccines, medical products and many other areas of concern that we should all pay attention to for the sake of ourselves and our families.

The Internet has simplified Mass Media in the sense that you can gather most of your information at home on the computer in a short amount of time. The Internet certainly has pro's and con's, but you can access the FDA's recalls and alerts by going to http://www.fda.gov/opacom/7alerts.HTML

Looking through the dates and recalls, I noticed that I have missed many reports that caution a very broad range of products including the most recent as of today; Lake Country and Land O Lakes Lamb Feed. It's quite amazing to see that the FDA updates this site daily, meaning there are usually one or two alerts per day or several alerts every couple of days.

According to the FDA, the link above covers Class 1 recalls. This Class 1 alert is defined as "a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death". Even if you don't utilize the website for monitoring recalls, you now understand that a Class 1 alert from the FDA is serious and can be fatal.

Poking around a little more really caught my attention when I clicked the link for all Class 1, Class 2 and Class 3 alerts. This link is the FDA Enforcement Report Index; http://www.fda.gov/opacom/Enforce.html which gathers all alerts for you to browse by year, month and day. Class 2 alerts are defined as "a situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote. The least harmful is Class 3, which states "a situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product is not likely to cause adverse health consequences". The link in this paragraph would most likely benefit everyone since you can get all reports from the FDA in one click sorted by the year, month and day.

Hopefully, you will find this information helpful when it comes to protecting yourself and/or your family. For busy people like you and I, the links I have included should be monitored quite often. It only takes a few seconds before heading off to bed, which could save a lot of heartache later on down the road.

Thanks for reading!