More food recalls every year: How dangerous meat, milk and cheese really are

More food recalls every year, 2019 was a record year.

But how dangerous is that?

Where are consumers particularly affected?

A data analysis clarifies.

• Food is recalled almost every day * and has to be removed from the shelves.

• According to statistics, the

  number of

  recalls

  is increasing every year - but is the actual risk also increasing?

• Which foods and regions are most frequently affected.

Munich - Whether bacteria in the sausage or metal parts in the cheese - recalls initially cause us concern.

From a statistical point of view,

* are even increasing from year to year.

What is behind the alarming messages?

We have analyzed statistics and data and give answers.

In recent years, the number of

according to official statistics

increased greatly.

While between 2011 and 2013 there were less than

on the authorities website Lebensmittelwarnung.de, the number of publications increased steadily thereafter.

In 2019,

on the portal - almost one per working day.

Growing food warnings: How to explain the rise in recalls

How did this large increase in recalls come about?

For one thing, manufacturers are now

less critical of

a

than they were a few years ago.

At least that's what a spokesman for the

suspects at the request of Ippen-Digital-Zentralredaktion

.

When the portal was founded, a mention was seen more as a

.

It also plays a role that not

involved

when the page

was set up.

The

, which is responsible for the Lebensmittelwarnung.de portal, ultimately has no clear evidence for these suspected connections.

Product recalls: which products are most commonly affected

Further figures support the observation that foods are not necessarily more deficient than they used to be.

In recent years, for example, the

authority recorded

only a

the

of complaints at plant

.

While it was

2014

four years later it was

not significantly more

at

.

Most

, however, are not based on complaints from the authorities, but are triggered by controls by the companies themselves.

Most often in the past,

made from it had to be removed from the shelves.

One in five of the approximately 1,200 reports on Lebensmittelwarnung.de related to this category.

Individual areas could be so strongly represented in the statistics because they are among the most frequently consumed staple

and the categories are also

.

Other categories, such as honey or food supplements, on the other hand, are much more specific and therefore automatically have a smaller share in the statistics.

A spokesman for the Federal Office said on request.

That is how dangerous recalls are

The fact that the

generally carried out for very good reasons can be seen in the possible health consequences for us consumers.

can cause abdominal pain and diarrhea and have no business in food.

Nevertheless, so-called

from time to time.

With 34 percent of all reports, such incidents are the most common cause of a recall.

The particularly dangerous

appeared in a recall case involving a Swiss cheese - but also in many other cases.

Listeria are bacteria that can cause nausea, vomiting or a fever.

The symptoms of what is known as

are usually similar to a flu-like infection - but only if a particularly large number of pathogens are ingested.

Another hazard also arises in production: for example, a honey had to be recalled once because

that could have come from a mixer were found.

45,000 AOK insured suffered from food poisoning in 2019

How often do people actually injure or poison themselves from

?

The AOK calculated this at our request:

AOK insured persons received outpatient or inpatient treatment for food poisoning in 2019.

This results from the billing statistics.

In addition, the fund assumes an even higher number of unreported cases.

But what exactly triggered the poisoning and how often a recalled product was responsible for it is not clear from the figures.

In addition to errors on the part of the manufacturer, incorrect storage or preparation by the consumer can also be the reason.

A spokesman for the

added to our editorial team that

no direct conclusions

could be drawn

from the

data

about the risk of recalled

.

"If someone comes to the doctor with stomach pain and nausea, it may be due to a virus infection or even to food poisoning," said a DAK health expert.

Food warnings in a country comparison: Bavaria most frequently affected

The country comparison of the reports from 2019 shows that it makes a difference where you live and shop. Although the values ​​do not differ extremely from one another, deviations are discernible.

The values ​​vary between 185 warnings for Bavaria and 116 for Saarland and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

In fact, it is the

are particularly

decisive in determining whether a country is affected by a warning or not.

The

and

the federal states

also tend to play

a role, as the Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety explains on request.

That could explain why large federal states such as

and

more affected than

or

.

Most of the time, the respective federal state in which the

based issues a corresponding warning.

The other countries join this warning if the affected product was also sold there.

It remains to be seen whether the clear trend of recent years will be confirmed.

The previous

in 2020 do not yet indicate a renewed increase.

However, as our analyzes show, an increasing number of recalls does not automatically count as a sign of increasingly poor food.

And when errors have happened,

the most important

thing is to

the part of those responsible - and the sensitivity of the consumer, which is even supposed to arise from the recalls.

Transparency: Our data, sources and methods

The Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) and the portal Lebensmittelwarnung.de were used as sources for the research.

The numbers that the BVL sent us on request were processed and illustrated with the help of graphics.

In addition, spokespeople for the BVL, the Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety and the DAK and AOK health insurances provided information about the recall issue.