Data sources and licences
All data on this site is a work of the United States government (public domain under 17 USC §105) or, for openFDA, released under CC0. Recall Register is not affiliated with or endorsed by NHTSA, the CPSC, the FDA or any other agency.
| Dataset | Access | Used for | Latest record |
|---|---|---|---|
| NHTSA recalls flat files | static.nhtsa.gov, FLAT_RCL_PRE_2010.zip and FLAT_RCL_POST_2010.zip, daily | Every Part 573 recall campaign since 1966 with make, model, model year, component, defect, consequence and remedy text and units affected. | 24 Sep 2026 |
| NHTSA complaints flat file | static.nhtsa.gov, FLAT_CMPL.zip, daily | 1,566,651 complaint rows since 1995: counts by make, model, model year, component and year received. Narratives are not used. | 15 May 2019 |
| NHTSA investigations flat file | static.nhtsa.gov, FLAT_INV.zip, daily | Office of Defects Investigation actions by make, model and model year with subject, dates and resulting campaign. | 24 Sep 2026 |
| CPSC Recall Retrieval Web Services | saferproducts.gov REST API, no key, pulled in yearly date ranges | Recall title, description, products, hazards, remedies, incidents, firms, retailers and units. | 10 Sep 2026 |
| openFDA enforcement reports | download.open.fda.gov bulk exports for food, drug and device, weekly | Recall number, event, class, status, firm, product, reason, quantity, distribution and dates. | 28 Sep 2026 |
Not used
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service recalls (meat, poultry and egg products) are published at fsis.usda.gov behind bot protection that refuses scripted access; they are not on this register. NHTSA's website pages are likewise not scraped; only the static flat files and public API are read.
CPSC snapshots
The CPSC API is slow and sometimes returns an error for a date range. Each yearly range is kept as a snapshot from the last successful pull, and the current and previous year are refreshed on every build. Ranges the API refuses as single queries (before 2000, and 2016) were pulled once in smaller pieces and are held as snapshots.
openFDA notice
openFDA's terms require the following: "Do not rely on openFDA to make decisions regarding medical care. While we make every effort to ensure that data is accurate, you should assume all results are unvalidated."
Reuse
Tables and figures on this site may be quoted with a link to the page. The underlying data is public domain or CC0 and best obtained from the agencies directly at the links above.