You buy a coffee cup expecting it to, well, hold hot liquids, right? That wasn’t the case with Declan’s coffee mugs, where last week, 580K units were recalled for possibly shattering when filled with… hot liquids. Product recalls have steadily grown since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was given more authority to issue recalls in 2011. In the first quarter of 2024, product recalls across five industries (including auto, food, and pharma) in the US rose 8% compared to the same period in 2023 — the highest level over five years.

• Pharmaceutical recalls jumped 42.4% to a 19-year high between 2022 and 2023.
• Food recalls have also surged by 118% from 2018-2022, according to a 2023 report from MasterControl.

Safety isn’t always first: Food and beverage recalls accounted for 64% of all recalls by the FDA, with drugs taking the second spot at 22%. An analysis by Bloomberg points to the increasingly complex and outsourced drug manufacturing process as a key factor behind the rise in drug recalls. CVS was highlighted, with its generic over-the-counter drugs nearly doubling the number of Walgreens recalls and tripling Walmart’s. Quality concerns among international factories, which have become a cheaper alternative for pharma companies, were also singled out.