The data
Thousands of product recalls. Most of them never reach the people who actually own the product.
CPSC, NHTSA, and FDA together issue thousands of recalls every year. Reaching consumers is the hard part — none of the agencies knows who owns what. We’re a thin layer that closes that gap for you specifically.
Three agencies, one inbox
Most consumer-facing recalls come from these three federal bodies. CPSC handles toys, household goods, and appliances; NHTSA covers vehicles, tires, and car seats; FDA covers food and drugs.
Recalls per year, last 10 years
Stacked by agency. Total recall volume in 2026 is down about 78% compared with 2017.
What gets recalled most
Top product categories across all three agencies.
The awareness gap
Why you probably haven’t heard about most of these.
Agencies don't know who owns the product
When CPSC announces a recall, they have no way to email the people who bought the recalled stroller. The legal notification path is a press release plus instructions for retailers to contact buyers — which works if you registered, kept the address current, and the retailer kept records.[3]
The news cycle is short
A high-profile recall gets a few days of coverage. Smaller ones get none. CPSC's own press releases note that recall awareness among consumers remains a persistent challenge, especially for products no longer in active retail distribution.[3]
Most products never get returned
NHTSA tracks vehicle recall completion quarterly. About one in four recalled vehicles is never repaired — owners moved, sold the car, ignored the mailer, or never received one in the first place. For consumer products, where there's no VIN to match against, the response rate is generally lower.[2]
Recalls happen years after purchase
A 2022-recalled crib might have been sold in 2017. The buyer has long since moved, switched email providers, or thrown out the registration card. The recall hits the news, but the person it's about doesn't see it.[1]
What ownitsafely does about it
You tell us once what you own. We watch all three federal feeds every night. When a recall matches something on your list, you get one email — with the recall details, the product it matched against, and a one-click way to dismiss the match if it’s not actually your product. No tracking, no ads, no data selling. Just the message you would have wanted the agency to send you directly.
Sources & methodology
- Recall counts on this pageare computed live from the ownitsafely database, updated nightly from three public federal sources: the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s SaferProducts.gov REST API, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recall dataset on data.transportation.gov, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s openFDA enforcement-report endpoints (food and drug; device recalls are out of scope for the consumer wedge). Numbers refresh hourly on this page.
- Vehicle-recall completion rate. NHTSA publishes recall completion rates quarterly; over the long run, light-vehicle completion sits around 70-75% within 18 months of the recall notification, leaving roughly one in four affected vehicles unrepaired. Source: nhtsa.gov/recalls.
- Consumer-recall awareness. CPSC has noted in multiple public statements that recall awareness among consumers is a persistent challenge, particularly for products no longer in active retail distribution. Source: cpsc.gov/Recalls. FDA recall response data is reported in the openFDA enforcement records cited above; response rates vary widely by recall class and distribution scope. Where we don’t cite a specific number, we describe the trend qualitatively to avoid overclaiming.