Learn about safety alerts

The Recalls and Safety Alerts web application provides easy access to a comprehensive list of recalls, advisories, and safety alerts. This web application includes recalls from Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Transport Canada.

What's the difference between an information update and an advisory? When are recalls issued? Learn how the Government of Canada communicates health risks and new safety information to Canadians.

Notices from Health Canada

Health Canada publishes a lot of information about health products, food, pesticides, and consumer products:

Public advisories

Public advisories give information about situations where the use of--or exposure to--a product could pose a health risk. Advisories are issued for both authorized and unauthorized products.

Information updates

Information updates are used when the notice is not urgent. They can provide additional information about advisories, or seasonal health information related to health products, food, pesticides or consumer products.

Foreign product alerts

These web alerts act as general warnings about health products that come from other countries and have been found by other regulators to pose a risk to health. Even though these products are not approved for sale in Canada and have not been found on the Canadian market, Canadians may still be exposed to them while travelling or by purchasing the products online.

Consumer product recalls

Consumer product recalls are not assigned different levels of urgency. If a product is recalled, it is always considered a danger to human health or safety. This means it could cause injury, death or adverse health effects (temporary or chronic) as a result of its normal or possible use.

Health Canada also shares a number of safety alerts that come from industry:

Health product recall notices

These notices tell readers when (and why) a product has been recalled by the manufacturer.

Public communications

These notices communicate new health and safety information about marketed health products.

Notice to Hospitals

Inform health professionals about time-sensitive issues regarding the safety or effectiveness (or both) of a marketed health product which is primarily used in hospital or is limited to a select group of practitioners who exclusively practise in hospital or selected clinics.

Health Professional Communication

Inform health professionals about time-sensitive issues regarding the safety or effectiveness (or both) of a marketed health product.

Notices from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)

The CFIA issues public advisories/recalls whenever a food product could cause serious health consequences.

The CFIA classifies recalls based on the level of health risk (high, moderate, low, or no risk) associated with the food product. For more information on recalls and recall levels, consult the food recall fact sheet.

Notices from Transport Canada

When there's a possible issue with a vehicle or child restraint, Transport Canada's Defect Investigations Group looks into it. Safety-related problems are usually common to a group of vehicles, tires or child restraints made according to one design or by one manufacturer. If a problem is found, it could affect the safety of road users without warning. In those situations, the investigation may lead to a safety recall or the publication of a safety advisory.

Transport Canada also issues consumer information notices when there is a general problem with a child restraint that is not caused by a defect or by non-compliance with regulations.