# FDA Recall Monitor — Food, Drug & Device Enforcement Reports (`eschalon/fda-recall-monitor`) Actor

Track new FDA recall enforcement reports across food, drugs, and medical devices from the official openFDA API — classification, product, reason, firm, and distribution details.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/eschalon/fda-recall-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Corey Kuwanoe](https://apify.com/eschalon) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## FDA Recall Monitor — Food, Drug & Device Enforcement Reports

Track **new FDA recall enforcement reports** across food, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices — straight from the official openFDA API.

Recalls move markets, empty shelves, and trigger liability. FDA publishes enforcement reports weekly; this actor turns them into a clean, filterable dataset within minutes of your schedule.

### Who uses this

- **Food safety & QA teams** — watch for ingredient and supplier recalls that touch your products
- **Retailers & distributors** — pull recalled SKUs before customers find them
- **Law firms & insurers** — Class I recalls are case and claim signals
- **CPG competitive intel & journalists** — who's recalling, how often, and why

### What you get

One dataset row per enforcement report:

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| `category` | `food` |
| `recall_number` | `F-1234-2026` |
| `classification` | `Class I` (most serious) |
| `status` | `Ongoing` |
| `product_description` | `Frozen diced chicken, 5 lb bags…` |
| `reason_for_recall` | `Potential Listeria monocytogenes contamination` |
| `recalling_firm` | `Acme Foods LLC` |
| `city` / `state` / `country` | `Springfield` / `IL` / `United States` |
| `report_date` / `recall_initiation_date` | `2026-06-25` / `2026-06-10` |
| `distribution_pattern` | `Nationwide` |

### Input

- **sinceDays** — look-back window (default 30; FDA publishes weekly)
- **categories** — any of `food`, `drug`, `device` (default all three)
- **classifications** — optional filter: `Class I`, `Class II`, `Class III`
- **maxItems** — cap on results
- **apiKey** — optional free openFDA key for higher rate limits

### Typical setups

- **Weekly Class I alert**: schedule weekly, `classifications: ["Class I"]`, export to Slack/email via Apify integrations.
- **Food-only watch**: `categories: ["food"]`, `sinceDays: 14`, feed your QA dashboard.
- **Research backfill**: `sinceDays: 365`, `maxItems: 10000`.

### Data source & legality

Official openFDA enforcement endpoints (api.fda.gov). Public US government data; no scraping, no ToS issues. Note openFDA's standard disclaimer: data is not for clinical decision-making.

# Actor input Schema

## `sinceDays` (type: `integer`):

Return enforcement reports with report dates within this many days. FDA publishes enforcement reports weekly, so 30+ days is recommended.

## `categories` (type: `array`):

Which openFDA enforcement feeds to scan: food, drug, device.

## `classifications` (type: `array`):

Optional filter: Class I (dangerous), Class II, Class III. Leave empty for all.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many reports (across all categories).

## `apiKey` (type: `string`):

Optional api.fda.gov key for higher rate limits (free at https://open.fda.gov/apis/authentication/). Not needed for typical runs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "sinceDays": 30,
  "categories": [
    "food",
    "drug",
    "device"
  ],
  "maxItems": 500
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("eschalon/fda-recall-monitor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("eschalon/fda-recall-monitor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call eschalon/fda-recall-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=eschalon/fda-recall-monitor",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YiuRtL6kPJnbqSm3e/builds/131erYXBcHuxIorCE/openapi.json