What recall statuses mean
A recall record's status tells you where the recall itself stands -- not whether the product is still on a shelf somewhere, and not a judgment Public Health Trace makes. FDA defines three status terms in its own Enforcement Report Information and Definitions page; Public Health Trace displays FDA's exact published text whenever a source provides it, and adds one more label of its own for the (common) case where a source doesn't publish a status at all.
- Ongoing
- FDA's own definition: "a recall which is currently in progress." The firm has started removing or correcting the product, but FDA hasn't yet determined the recall is complete.
- Completed
- The firm has retrieved and impounded all outstanding product, or has completed all of the product corrections the recall called for. This describes what the firm has done, not a formal closure decision by FDA -- which is what "terminated" below is.
- Terminated
- FDA has determined that all reasonable efforts to remove or correct the product have been made, under the firm's own recall strategy. This is FDA's formal closing determination for the recall.
- Status not reported
- Public Health Trace's own label, not FDA's -- shown when a source published neither a status string nor a termination date for this record. USDA FSIS and FDA's RSS feed don't populate either field for any recall today, so most USDA and many fast-moving FDA records carry this label. It means the source didn't say, not that the recall is still active.
What you actually see on a Public Health Trace recall page
The status badge always shows the source's own text verbatim when one was published -- including a status string that doesn't match any of the four terms above, if a source ever publishes something unusual; Public Health Trace never replaces real published text with a generic substitute. Separately, a termination date with no status string at all is shown as "Terminated," because publishing a closing date is itself a fact FDA established, even without an accompanying status word.
Why this isn't medical advice
A recall's status describes the regulatory process, not whether a specific product you have is safe to use. FDA's own recall notice, linked from every Public Health Trace recall page, is the place to check what to do with a specific product -- Public Health Trace doesn't repeat or paraphrase that instruction here. See our medical disclaimer.
Limitations: this guide reflects FDA's own published definitions and what Public Health Trace's current importers capture. A status term FDA adds or changes in the future may not yet be reflected here -- see corrections policy to report anything out of date.
See how to read an FDA recall record for the rest of a recall record's fields, or browse current records on Drug Recalls and the Data Explorer.