1.6 million pounds of hot dogs recalled amid USDA staffing cuts — and investors are feeling the impact

If you're sitting down in your work or school lunch room, looking at your plate and wondering — "Can I safely eat this?" — you're not the only one.

This year has brought a seemingly non-stop parade of scary-sounding, wide-reaching food recalls, starting with the so-called "diarrhea lettuce" over the summer. That turned out to be an outbreak of a parasite called cyclospora, which had contaminated lettuce distributed by Taylor Farms and served at restaurants and grocery stores in dozens of states.

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Then came the Star Meat Delivery affair: According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture ( USDA ), the Lucama, North Carolina-based company put false labels on 167,639 pounds of raw pork, beef, and goat products, implying that they had been inspected when they hadn't been. No illness has been linked to the meat, but all of it had to be recalled.

And now, nearly 1.6 million pounds of processed, ready-to-eat meat products such as hot dogs and deli meat made by Kayem Foods are being recalled because they may not have been stored at safe temperatures. No reports of illness have emerged, but you can see if anything in your fridge is affected here .

Everyone understands the human cost of these events — in the case of the cyclospora outbreak alone, 20,000 people became ill and two died. But what about the business consequences? Can a company that becomes known for diarrhea lettuce or potentially tainted meat ever bounce back?

It's too early to say if the number of food recalls or outbreaks have increased this year, or why. However, experts have raised concerns about the loss of federal capacity to study and monitor food safety due to sweeping cuts at the USDA, the Food and Drug Administration, and other agencies.

According to Investigate Midwest , between January and June of 2025, the USDA reduced its workforce by 18%, and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which is responsible for inspecting slaughterhouses and processing plants, cut staff by 9%. According to a May 2026 USDA report , consumer complaints about the safety of meat, poultry and egg products jumped nearly 40% last year.