Food recalls

Food recalls are issued to protect the public. 

Food that is unfit for consumption must be recalled. Examples include bacterial contamination, such as Listeria in cheese, or shards of metal in ground meat. 

Food recalls are also issued when the safety of a food item cannot be guaranteed. This often occurs when the product packaging contains inaccurate or missing information, such as the failure to declare an allergen. 

Recalls help protect consumers from food poisoning and allergic reactions. 

If you think you have a recalled product at home, compare the information in the recall notice with the information on the product packaging. 

If you do have the recalled product: 

• Do not eat it. 
• Discard it, or return it to the place of purchase or the location mentioned in the recall notice. 
• See a doctor if you think you became ill after eating a recalled product. 

If the food has been recalled due to an allergen that does not affect you, you can safely eat the product. Make sure that no one with a known allergy can access it. 

A food recall often comes with a warning addressed to the general public and published as a press release. The purpose of this recall notice is to inform anyone who has the product in their possession not to eat it. 

In some cases, the notice is only addressed to a subset of the population, such as people with allergies. Anyone who does not have a known allergy to the product mentioned in the notice can safely eat the food and ignore the warning. 

Note that the food recall notices published by the Gouvernement du Québec are in French only. You can find them on the following platforms:

Sign up for food recall

If you sign up for the newsletter, you will get an email for each recall notice.

There are also two other ways to find out about recall notices:

• Food recall press releases : notices are accessible as soon as they are published on the news wire 
• Posts on X   

You can also see food recall warning from the federal government .

Several triggers can lead to a food recall, including: 

• foodborne illness outbreak 
• consumer complaints 
• inspection findings 
• non-compliant results of a food sampling test or an investigation 

Companies can decide to trigger a voluntary recall if one of its products may be hazardous if consumed. 

In some cases, companies may be forced to recall their product if necessary and urgent for the protection of the public. 

In Québec 

A food recall can be triggered by the  Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation or the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. These two organizations have agreements to ensure that food monitoring activities are coordinated effectively. 

More than 200 food recalls are issued every year.