14 Of The Biggest Canned Food Recalls In History

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Modern life comes with a seemingly infinite number of things you need to keep track of, but there's one very important thing that you shouldn't overlook: Food recalls. They happen a lot, and in some cases, finding out about one could be potentially life-saving. Recalls are issued for reasons ranging from unlabeled allergens and mislabeled products, to potential contamination with the kind of microorganisms that can cause serious illnesses.
It's not something that's gone away over time, either. In 2024, Boar's Head was at the center of one of the largest deli meat recalls ever, ending with 71 different products recalled for potential listeria contamination. At least ten people died, dozens were hospitalized, and seven million pounds of meat were deemed suspect. That seems almost unthinkable, but even canned foods haven't been exempt from massive recalls.
Canned food has a reputation as being shelf-stable and long-lasting, and there are a number of canned foods that are perfect or keeping your pantry stocked. But, here's the thing: Canned goods can definitely be recalled, and we'd even argue that these recalls are easy to miss. You might not remember you have a compromised product in your pantry at the time, so let's talk about some of the biggest canned food recalls in history, and put it into perspective on why you should keep an eye out for announcements that might impact you.
Read more: The 15 Absolute Best Canned Foods To Stock Your Pantry
There's a fascinating history behind the distinctive shape of SpaghettiOs, and that circular pasta was designed to be easy to eat and retain texture during the rigorous canning process. In 2010, part of that canning process went wrong and led to a recall that included 15 million pounds of three different types of SpaghettiOs with meatballs: The regular Os, A to Z, and the car-shaped noodles.
The recall wasn't just a large one in terms of quantity, and covered products that had been manufactured all the way back to December of 2008. The problem, Campbell's said, was with one of the cookers in the company's Texas-based production facility.
Although the announcement stressed that no reports of undercooked SpaghettiOs had been received, no illnesses had been connected to the cans, and there was the high likelihood that the majority of product covered in the recall had already been eaten, they were playing it safe. Defective cans had been discovered during a routine inspection, and in the following investigation, it was discovered that the cooker wasn't at the right temperature. Since it was impossible to tell how long the cooker had been malfunctioning, Campbell's decided to issue the voluntary, nationwide recall that would effectively remove all potentially affected products from the market.
Although it might be a foolproof way to keep a shelf-stable protein on hand, there are some clear signs that your canned tuna isn't good anymore. The most obvious is damage to the cans, and that's what kicked off a huge recall of Bumble Bee tuna back in 1982. It started with a complaint from one California-based customer, who found a hole in a can. More complaints from customers across the country started rolling in, and further investigation found that it wasn't a more widespread problem than initially thought: Cans were being potentially punctured by the equipment used at the company's processing facility in Honolulu, and those holes were being hidden beneath the labels.
All of the tuna processed by the plant was recalled, going all the way back to the beginning of the previous year. It amounted to about 40 million cans, and if you're thinking that's a ton of tuna, it is. At the time of the recall, experts were estimating that it was going to cause a widespread tuna shortage, and availability would take as long as eight months to rebound.
Welcoming a new little life into the family definitely comes with a ton of stress and unlocks a whole new set of things to worry about, and back in 2010, Similac added something else to the list. A whopping five million cans of infant formula were being recalled, after beetles were discovered in one of the company's processing plants. The voluntary recall covered three different sizes of powdered formula, and was issued alongside reassurances that the problem was in hand. The lot numbers of recalled cans included those sold to customers, as well as those used in hospitals.
Young children are one of the groups that are often noted as being more susceptible to foodborne illnesses, and they're also more likely to suffer severe cases that an adult's fully-developed immune system if better equipped to handle. It makes sense, then, that parents were incredibly worried when they heard of the possibility that they had been feeding their children formula containing beetle parts and larvae, and some came forward to say they'd noticed signs of discomfort in their children.
Health professionals, however, said that the worst that was likely to happen were some stomach aches. Even as they tried to reassure parents that there was only a small likelihood of contamination, they added that even if there were bugs in the powder, the outcome would not be catastrophic.
Fish goes on a long journey as it travels from ocean to the tin, and there are plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong along the way. Sometimes, that turns into something deadly, and that's what happened back in 1982. Alongside a massive recall for Bumble Bee tuna, another 50 million cans of canned salmon were recalled after an investigation spurred at least in part by the death of a Belgian man.
The cause of the death (and other reported illnesses) was botulism, which takes several forms, all of which are potentially deadly. It occurs after exposure to a spore-producing bacteria that can cause things like nerve paralysis, and in this case, the culprit was canned Alaskan salmon. It was found that cans had been damaged during the manufacturing processes of several separate facilities, and far from being an isolated incident, cans dating back to 1980 — and that were labeled under multiple brand names — were recalled.
At the time, it was one of the largest food recalls ever, and in the investigation that followed, it was found that products from other canneries had produced similar concerns. The equipment found to be at fault was changed, food safety measures were overhauled, and surprisingly, there were no other deaths or illnesses associated with the incident.
When the massive recall of canned Alaskan salmon hit headlines in 1982, The New York Times noted that as it grew, it was challenging the scale of another recall in recent history. In 1973, it was reported that botulism spores had been discovered in six-pound, nine-ounce cans of mushrooms, leading to a recall of almost 30,000 cans. Another announcement came the following day, expanding the recall.
In a bizarre footnote, most of the mushrooms were in the giant cans destined for industrial and commercial use. Many had been shipped to Papa Fabbrini's Frozen Pizzas, and testing confirmed the presence of botulism. (It was later found to be a false positive.) That led to what's called the Great Michigan Pizza Funeral, when about 30,000 pizzas were laid to rest in a ceremony that almost led to the end of Mario Fabbrini's pizza business.
Even stranger, things weren't over yet. In January of 1974, it was announced that four-ounce cans of mushrooms that had been manufactured the previous fall had also tested positive for botulism, and were being recalled. After the initial announcement, another followed a few days later. More canned mushrooms were being added to the already long list of brands and distributors impacted. Precise numbers are difficult to track down, but sources suggest that by the time it was over, somewhere around 75 million cans were recalled.
Just a few years after the massive recall of canned mushrooms hit headlines in the mid-1970s, there was another. This one happened in 1981, and the danger was once again botulism. Initially, the recall issued by Oxford Royal covered just over 65,000 cans, and was announced after testing done by the Food and Drug Administration detected the presence of botulism spores.
Food recalls often get larger and larger as more products are tested, and that's what happened here: Very quickly, that number skyrocketed to five million cans of mushrooms. After first reports suggested the mushrooms had been distributed in 10 states, that expanded to 30 states. The number of brands impacted rose, too, from 30 to 45. The cans were those that had been manufactured in the few months prior to the recall, and it caused something of a panic. That was understandable, given the previous mushroom recall, and the FDA issued statements specifying that it wasn't all mushroom products, and checking codes on cans would tell customers if it was part of the recall.
The numbers on this one are pretty shocking. Back in 2007, horrified cat and dog owners were suddenly losing their pets to an outbreak of kidney failures. The culprit was Menu Foods pet food: Ingredients imported into the Canadian manufacturing facility from China were found to contain melamine. Melamine causes blockages and kidney failure, and news reports say that it led to the deaths of hundreds of pets.
The recall ultimately covered 60 millions cans and packets of food, 95 different brand names, and spawned more than 100 class action lawsuits that were ultimately settled with a $24 million verdict. The tragic footnote to this is that settlements only included reimbursement for things like vet bills, and not what were described to the CBC as "non-economic losses." In other words, the emotional toll of pet deaths. Some consumers lost multiple pets to the tainted food, and the incident led to changes in the legislation governing safety regulations for pet food.
Chilled vichyssoise is a classic French dish that's basically a leek and potato soup, and if you're thinking it's not super popular in the U.S., you'd be right. That could in part be because of lasting damage done to the soup's image way back in 1971, when one man died a litle over a day after he and his wife had a meal of Bon Vivant's canned vichyssoise. She, too, ended up in the hospital in critical condition, and while she survived, she was permanently paralyzed.
Doctors pinpointed the cause as botulism. Many of the recalls we're talking about happened on a cautionary basis, but initial testing on 324 cans of the company's vichyssoise confirmed there was a huge problem. Five contained the deadly toxin, and it led to the emergency seizure of 1.5 million cans.
The incident turned into a legal battle that dragged out for years, as Bon Vivant tried to appeal for the return of the seized cans. The company argued that the FDA didn't have the right to seize products because it might be contaminated, and really, that's not a great look. Bon Vivant went on to declare bankruptcy, the cans were ultimately destroyed, and after three years of hearing about deadly vichyssoise, it's no wonder that people weren't in a hurry to eat it.
Food waste happens on a massive scale, and it's always heartbreaking. Wasting meat products is extra heartbreaking, given where meat comes from, and in 2023, Conagra recalled just over 2.5 million pounds of canned meat. It represented about a month's worth of production, and the cause was given as defective cans that compromised food safety.
Products included Vienna sausages sold under several brand names as well as potted meat, and although consumers were warned that the defective cans had the potential to spoil or become contaminated with various microorganisms, no illnesses were connected to the products. Still, it's worth mentioning that it wasn't a great year for Conagra. It also recalled several thousand pounds of frozen beef shepherd's pie and about a quarter of a million pounds of chicken strips, both over concerns of the presence of foreign matter. The same year, Conagra reported a prolonged period of sales being down, which it attributed to shoppers becoming more budget-conscious.
It's nice to think that the powers-that-be have the best interests of the public at heart, but when a massive scandal hit headlines in 1985, it undoubtedly had a lot of people reconsidering. It revolved around a Star-Kist cannery in New Brunswick, Canada, and about a million cans of tuna. When random spot checks turned up rancid cans, entire batches were pulled and labeled as unsellable. When the government's fisheries manager got wind of it, it kicked off a long and complicated fight between Star-Kist — which said most of the tuna was fine — and government officials, who said that just because some of the cans looked fine, they weren't all safe to eat.
After several inspections agreed that no, the tuna was absolutely not safe, the aforementioned fisheries manager released it for sale anyway after one more investigation said that it was probably fine. Tons of complaints started rolling in, and entire shipments of the tuna were even refused by the military for being unsafe and smelling of rotting fish.
An official recall was issued, but it only covered around 28,000 cans of the million or so that were deemed a part of the questionable batches. The fisheries manager resigned (and later became the Speaker of the House of Commons), and the incident led to new legislation that prevented government officials from overriding food safety decisions.
In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to pet owners: 13.5 million cans of Hill's Science Diet dog food — which had been distributed in 78 different countries — were being recalled for containing deadly levels of vitamin D. High levels of this particular vitamin can cause kidney failure and death, and the stories of dogs who died in a matter of days are absolutely heartbreaking.
The recall dragged on over the course of months, as more samples were tested and more cans were added to the recall. By the time it was over, 22 million cans were recalled, and it kicked off a massive investigation into the way Hill's sourced ingredients. According to the FDA's findings, a vitamin mix included in the food hadn't been tested according to the guidelines. What slipped past contained about 33 times the amount of vitamin D as it should have, and it's unclear how many pets died. Some owners lost their dogs before the recall was initiated, and Hill's eventually agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle the lawsuits.
Even today, there are still guidelines put in place to help you decide how much tuna is safe to eat each week, and that's because mercury is still a major concern. Recent studies suggest that mercury levels in tuna are still wildly unpredictable, and back in 1970, testing for mercury content led to the recall of about a million cans of tuna.
Interestingly, that came with a caveat: The Food and Drug Administration added that they weren't asking customers to return or discard cans if they had any covered by the recall, and said that if they had been consumed, it was fine. Anything unsold was being pulled off the market, and the recall came on the heels of another announcement. The high mercury content was restricted to Grand Union's tuna, and interestingly, the guidelines at the time considered safe mercury limited to be one half part per million. Today, that's been raised to one part per million.
Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that officially, botulism is fairly rare. When four cases were reported in July of 2007, it was safe to say that something was going on. The outbreak — which ultimately grew to include more cases in more states — was traced back to Castleberry foods. It led to a recall of 91 different products and 111 million total cans of foods including chili sauce and chili. Testing done on the same day that the recall was issued found 16 cans containing botulism spores, and the subsequent investigation turned up evidence of malfunctioning and improperly monitored equipment, and badly calibrated temperature gauges that were said to have contributed to underprocessing.
While Castleberry blamed the incident on malfunctioning equipment and not lax safety measures, the facility was shut down, and the company agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to settle lawsuits. The FDA, meanwhile, blamed oversight. Decades had passed since the last major botulism outbreak, and the incident led to heightened check in other plants... which then led to another 1.2 million-can recall of New Era beans. Testing had discovered traces of botulism spores in those products, leading to a nationwide warning being issued about the dangers of cutting corners.
In 2025, the year was ushered in with an announcement that major grocery stores were recalling canned tuna in more than 25 states. The problem was with faulty can lids that potentially didn't seal properly, leaving the cans vulnerable to contamination. It's unclear just how many cans were included in Tri-Union Seafoods' voluntary recall, but just the fact that there was a laundry list of brands and retails stores in so many states suggests that it was a widespread problem. Retailers carrying the tuna included Trader Joe's, Kroger, Safeway, Walmart, Costco, H-E-B, and other, independent grocers.
Tri-Union Seafoods has been in headlines for recalls before. In 2016, they — along with H-E-B and Bumble Bee — announced that thousands of cases of tuna were being recalled after a machinery failure was discovered, and questions were raised about whether or not cans had been underprocessed. The company had another, smaller recall back in 2010, when it was announced a recall of around 1,000 cases of Chicken of the Sea tuna. Here, too, the problem was with the sealing of the cans, and it was traced back to production issues.
Read the original article on Tasting Table.