Recall Radar Methodology

A plain-language note on how Recall Radar turns public FDA enforcement records into the scan shown on the product page.

Sources

Recall Radar uses openFDA enforcement APIs for food, drugs, and medical devices. The current prototype loads the 12 most recently reported records from each source and keeps a local last-known snapshot for outages.

  • Food enforcement records
  • Drug enforcement records, including some supplement-like products listed in FDA drug data
  • Medical device enforcement records

Ranking

Records are sorted to put FDA Class I recalls first, then Class II, then everything else. Ongoing recalls rank above terminated or completed records inside the same class. Newer report dates are used as the final tie-breaker.

Highest concern means FDA Class I. Watch is used for ongoing recalls that are not Class I.

Limits

This is an awareness tool, not a medical or legal decision system. FDA records can be revised, delayed, duplicated, or missing context that matters to a specific household or patient.

Visitors should confirm details with FDA pages, recall notices, product labels, lot codes, clinicians, pharmacists, or manufacturers before acting on medical questions.

Privacy

The prototype does not use login, cookies, tracking scripts, form submission, or personal data collection. Search runs in the browser over records already loaded into the page.

URL search parameters exist only so a visitor can bookmark or share a focused view.

Update Surfaces

The interactive page is the main product. The static snapshot summary, source status page, digest, search starter page, firm index, code clue index, reason clue index, location clue index, newly reported page, highest concern page, ongoing recalls page, nationwide recalls page, category pages, action checklist, urgent situations guide, label check guide, date guide, classification guide, quantity guide, field guide, and RSS feed are generated or maintained so cautious visitors, crawlers, and feed readers can still inspect the latest loaded records and next-step guidance without JavaScript.

Open Recall Radar, use the private match checker, try prefilled search starters, browse the product clue index, recalling firm index, code clue index, reason clue index, or location clue index, start with the snapshot summary, check openFDA source status, read the latest static digest, jump to newly reported recalls, nationwide recalls, highest concern recalls, or ongoing recalls, scan food, drug and supplement, and medical device recall pages, use the recall action checklist, read the recall urgent situations guide, read the recall label check guide, read the recall date guide, read the recall classification guide, read the recall quantity guide, read the recall identifier guide, or read the recall field guide.