Summary
Product recalls can happen regularly, but it can be difficult to hear about them. Here are three websites from the US government that can show you when vehicles, food, and medicine have been recalled.
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When a product is recalled, it’s usually because of a significant safety issue. But finding out when there’s a recall for products you own can be difficult. If you want to see if you own a recalled product, here’s where you can go to check.
For Personal Tech Media, this is Two Minute Tech. I’m Jim Herman.
A list of recalled products is typically maintained by the government agency responsible for investigating claims that could lead to a recall.
Vehicle recalls are among the easiest to track. Go to NHTSA.gov/recalls and enter your car’s VIN. While you’re there, you can also check for any recalls of car seats, tires, or other vehicle equipment that you might own.
Due to the possibility of contamination, food is also commonly recalled. You can look through recent food safety recalls at foodsafety.gov/recalls. The recalls are very specific. If you have the same product but the specifics don’t match, it is not a part of that recall.
The FDA will sometimes also recall medicine. The agency maintains a public page of recalls for all the products it oversees, which includes drugs and many food products. If you checked the foodsafety.gov page, you may see some duplicates on the FDA’s page. As with food, your products are only part of the recall if they match every detail listed. If any of the products you own have been recalled, contact the place of purchase for more details on what to do next.