Food recall vs withdrawal: what is the difference?
Last reviewed 5 October 2026 against the sources listed below.
Both mean unsafe food is being taken off sale. The difference is whether it has reached shoppers.
The official definitions
The Food Standards Agency defines them like this:
- Withdrawal: "when unsafe food is removed from the supply chain before it has reached consumers."
- Recall: "when unsafe food is removed from the supply chain and consumers are advised to take appropriate action, for example to return or dispose of the unsafe food."
So a withdrawal happens behind the scenes, in warehouses and on shelves before sale. A recall is public, because people may already have the food at home.
What businesses must do
FSA guidance says a business that believes it has supplied food that is harmful or unfit to eat must immediately withdraw or recall it, and tell its local authority (or port health authority). If the food has reached consumers, it should also tell the FSA's incidents team, and a recall notice may be issued.
Why you only see recalls
Withdrawals don't need any action from shoppers, so they are not usually published. Recalls are published by the FSA (and by Food Standards Scotland for some Scotland-only cases), and shops display point-of-sale notices. This site lists every published recall since 2018.
Related terms
- Allergy alert: a recall because an allergen is missing from the label or labelled wrongly.
- Product recall information notice (PRIN): a recall for other safety reasons, such as bacteria or foreign bodies.
- Food alert for action (FAFA): asks local authorities to take specific action. See types of food alert.