What Should You Do If Your Grocery Food Gets Recalled?

With food recalls on the rise lately (though not necessarily for a bad reason), you may wish to know what steps to take if you find you've come home with a recalled product. Recalls happen for various reasons, from potential listeria contamination to allergens accidentally being introduced to the food, and they aren't always discovered immediately. When a company realizes something has gone awry, it generally issues a voluntary recall. However, when manufacturers or distributors don't know about a problem, a recall might not occur until a many people have already bought potentially harmful merchandise.

Ultimately, there are really no two ways about it: the product needs to go. That can mean tossing it in the trash and chalking the purchase up to a loss or returning it to the store to see if you can get a refund. Grocery stores are generally open to refunding customers who bought recalled goods, so you might as well attempt to save some scratch. Still, the one thing you should never do is keep the product on hand. The recall may not have been issued for something that will be a problem for you personally, but if it's left sitting around your house, it could pose a threat to others.

When there is an E. coli outbreak or bits of plastic found in food, like what happened with Trader Joe's chicken soup dumplings, everyone can be affected. Yet, you might think that if an item gets recalled for something like undeclared milk and you don't have a milk allergy, it would be okay to keep snacking away. However, while you might not be affected, your friend with a milk allergy who isn't aware of the recall might have a terrible reaction if they help themselves to some of your snacks.

Small children could also be at risk. Allergies are sometimes diagnosed only after someone has a bad reaction, meaning little ones eating the wrong food could end up having their first experience with a food allergy. Even if you don't have the time to take something back to the store (or simply think a $3 bag of chips isn't worth the trip), why not play it safe? For the sake of those around you, just discard that recalled food.