Primary Data Source
Our primary data source is the Health Canada Recalls and Safety Alerts open dataset, maintained by the Government of Canada. It contains over 29,000 recall records covering all categories — food, vehicles, consumer products, health products, and medical devices — and is updated daily. All data is published under the Open Government Licence — Canada, which permits free reuse with attribution.
The dataset covers recalls issued by:
- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) — food recalls
- Transport Canada (TC) — vehicle recalls
- Health Canada Consumer Product Safety — consumer product recalls
- Health Canada — medical device recalls
- Health Canada — drug and health product recalls
Vehicle Data
For vehicle recalls, we draw on Transport Canada's Vehicle Recall Database (VRDB), a free government service that provides vehicle-specific information including make, model, year range, and the specific system affected by the recall.
Update Frequency
New recalls appear on our site within hours of being published in the government data. Our system is fully automated — no manual steps are required for new records to go live. New recalls also trigger email alerts to subscribers whose category and allergen preferences match.
What We Add
- A plain-language, mobile-friendly page for every recall
- Allergen categorization for food recalls
- Risk level classification drawn from recall class data
- Related recall links connecting similar products and hazard types
- Email alerts matched to subscriber category and allergen preferences
- Full-text search across all 29,000+ records
Open Government Licence
This site contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence — Canada. The licence permits free use, modification, and distribution of Government of Canada data with attribution. We are compliant with the licence terms and include the required attribution on every page.
Accuracy and Limitations
We display government data as published. We do not modify, editorialize, or supplement the safety content of individual recall records. Occasionally, the government feed may contain incomplete or delayed records — this is a limitation of the source data, not our processing.
For the most current information, always refer to the official government recall pages linked on each record. If you notice an error in how data is displayed on our site, contact us at contact@consumerrecallscanada.com.