# Food Recalls & Alerts — user reviews > 218 indexed App Store user reviews of Food Recalls & Alerts by SmartAddress, Inc., rated 4.80/5 from 3,538 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/food-recalls-and-alerts/id1508680654/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/food-recalls-and-alerts/id1508680654.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 3,217 · 4★ 139 · 3★ 31 · 2★ 20 · 1★ 131 ## What do users think of Food Recalls & Alerts? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Timely notifications - 🔒 Reliable information source - 👍 Easy to use and navigate - 👍 Comprehensive details on recalls - 👍 Helpful for immunocompromised users - 👍 Saves lives and prevents illnesses **Cons** - 🔒 Privacy concerns with login requirement - 🐛 Occasional app crashes or bugs **Commonly reported bugs** - Login screen freezes - Incompatibility with older devices **Most requested features** - Location-based recall alerts - Ability to check if recalled products are safe to consume again ## Newest reviews (16 of 218) ### 1/5 — Used to be good *2025-11-01, version 2.1.2* Now everything is behind a paywall. So ridiculous to have to pay for safety information. ### 1/5 — Not a Free App *2025-09-11, version 2.1.1* Displays nothing useful without a subscription. ### 1/5 — Not loading anything anymore ‼️ *2025-09-06, version 2.1.1* Not loading anything anymore ‼️ ### 1/5 — Ruined by paywalling *2025-07-19, version 2.1.1* For an app whose motto is “keeping you and your loved ones safe” it’s clear now that really all that matters to them is money, what a surprise. It used to be so helpful and probably did save lives, now corporate greed has made the app unusable without a subscription. Insane. ### 2/5 — Paywall + Nondescriptive *2025-07-16, version 2.1.1* Sometimes says "and others" while listing out grocery stores of said recalled item which is just unhelpful. Paywalls access to states which the item got recalled in. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t Work *2025-07-04, version 2.1.1* This app used to be extremely helpful but now you open it and see a black screen. They ruined it with the paywall feature. Will be deleting. ### 1/5 — Money hungry *2025-06-11, version 2.1.1* This app used to be a great resource for public health awareness. Now they’ve made it so you can’t read a single recall without a paid subscription. ### 1/5 — Public Safety Shouldn’t Be Paywalled *2025-06-04, version 2.1.1* This app built its reputation by helping people avoid contaminated food and dangerous products. Now? It’s just another bait-and-switch. You took a tool meant to protect public health and shoved it behind a paywall. Let’s be clear: food recall data is public. You didn’t create it—you aggregated it. And now you’re charging users for access to their own safety? Blaming “funding issues” and name-dropping the FDA doesn’t make this right—it just makes it look worse. Plenty of apps survive using ads, donations, or optional upgrades. Instead, you locked essential health alerts behind a subscription, then tried to spin it as necessary. It’s not. It’s a choice—a deliberate, greedy one. If you have any integrity left, bring back free access to critical recall alerts. Support the app with ads or paid extras if you must—but don’t hold public safety hostage for profit. ### 1/5 — Immediately asks you to upgrade once you open the app *2025-05-30, version 2.1.1* As the title says, there's a pop up the moment you open the app. It is very pervasive and makes me want to google the information rather than rely on the app. ### 3/5 — Paywalls Diminish Experience for this App *2025-05-28, version 2.1.1* Over the past several months, recall info has become increasingly limited due to paywalls. ### 1/5 — Really Expensive & Unfair *2025-05-08, version 2.1.1* Crazy that we have to pay for this!! ### 1/5 — as usual, they ruined this app by making people pay *2025-04-27, version 2.1.1* this app used to be great, and i used it all the time to soothe my anxiety about the food we bought. now its basically useless as i can’t even click on one of the items without a pop-up saying i should buy, and all features are behind a paywall. nice job ruining your app for money, though at least people are being sensible and you’re losing users. ### 1/5 — Violating Apple Terms of Service? *2025-04-20, version 2.1.1* 1. Apple allows app sellers to put new services behind paywalls and subscriptions, but does not allow app sellers to reduce existing functionality. This same thing happened with Airmail a few years ago, and the seller had to issue a new app that restored the functions that had been free. I would suggest filing complaints directly with Apple. 2. I find the idea that the seller was denied FDA funding laughable. As if they ever had it before (not). Federal agencies sometimes produce there own apps (TSA, CBP, USDA, to name a few), but do not fund private app sellers. Particularly when all this information is available for free. Specifically, there is an FDA example (search “FDA Age Calculator”) 3. In the interim, there are other apps that still do provide all this information (and more) for free. Search “FDA recalls” and you will find several free apps with similar functionality. ### 1/5 — Premium *2025-04-19, version 2.1.0* This was a free app until now. You could open it and automatically access all features. Now you have to create a login and pay for premium to see the images and states affected. As people need this more and more, they decided to make money off you. Unsurprising but disappointing. ### 3/5 — Meh *2025-04-19, version 2.1.0* I liked it but now most features are just Food Recalls+ ### 1/5 — Used to be good *2025-04-14, version 2.1.0* It used to be great but now you have to pay…. To see food recalls?!? ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Paywall. 👎 *2026-08-21, version 3.9.1* No longer a useful app. ### 1/5 — Paywall *2026-08-13, version 3.9.1* Yeah can I get some vital information with my paywall? Apparently we have to pay to receive vital info ### 1/5 — Not all free *2026-08-09, version 3.9.1* It does show recalls with notifications. That’s nice. It does however, ask for subscription for more information. ### 1/5 — useless unless you pay *2026-07-12, version 3.8.4* I’ve used this app for a long time, and it’s completely useless now. Everything used to be free and now you can’t even look at the map or see more details without paying $5 a month. I’ll find somewhere else to get my information. ### 1/5 — Pay plan *2026-06-05, version 3.8.2* Why hide everything behind a pay wall when you can just fill your app with ads. I’d rather just see ads. We’ll be deleting until fixed ### 1/5 — Recent Update *2026-04-12, version 3.4.2* Removed recall map access for non-paying users and added a worthless AI chatbot instead. I get you need money to keep up the app, so maybe don't pay out the behind for unnecessary features that add nothing of value? ### 1/5 — Paywall garbage *2026-01-31, version 2.2.1* Used to be great and free… now all the good features are behind an absurdly high paywall. Don’t download. ### 1/5 — Not free *2026-01-30, version 2.2.1* No longer free. Useless app because you can’t see any details about the recalls ### 1/5 — Paywall & excuses *2025-12-14, version 2.2.1* I understand that the team is small but to paywall both product specifics and location information is going to result in people getting hurt. You have shot your own app in the foot. People would’ve excused ads, there was no in app attempts to fundraise that were ever apparent, there is a lot people would’ve permitted, but claiming to have an app to save lives only to have started to paywall the most important information is ridiculous. You might’ve historically helped people but you certainly will not be continuing to do so in the way you claim in your responses to critical reviews. Sad to see this app turn to the same bs everything else is. ### 1/5 — App Blocked by Paywall *2025-12-03, version 2.2.1* Do not waste your time with this app. In order to see ANYTHING on the app, you have to subscribe. This app is meant to help save lives from food recalls! But instead, it seems like they only care about making money. This app should be free! ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Godsend *2026-08-30, version 3.9.1* Extremely helpful in this day and age and with this administration in the US ### 5/5 — COSTS MONEY *2025-12-20, version 2.2.1* Not the developers fault.. they are by far the best and I relied on them for safety.. they needed gov funding and gov said no.. they should ask the new admin. ### 5/5 — Must have app *2025-12-14, version 2.2.1* This is fantastic wish food recalls would never happen but I’m glad there is an app to let you know. This help help me determine what was making me sick with the Boars Head deli meat. Saved my life ### 5/5 — Get this app for peace of mind!! *2025-08-29, version 2.1.1* I downloaded this app to keep up to date on all the pet food recalls during the bird flu outbreak, but it has been so much more helpful than I ever expected! I feel so much more confident when buying products because I know I'm up to date on all the current recalls. And if I'm worried about a product, it's super easy to search on the app to see if there are any recalls on it. Every recall that I have heard about has been listed on the app. I find it super helpful that it shows pictures of the products and the states that have been affected. I also love that it has a separate section for pet related recalls! This is definitely in the top five most important apps on my phone. I'm so glad I found it! ### 5/5 — Best app *2025-03-22, version 2.1.0* This app is very important. I’m so glad it’s still around. I look at this pretty much every day you have to because food is being recalled like crazy everything so it’s good to have this app to get all the information. I need to keep me and my wife safe. ### 5/5 — Great App. *2025-02-22, version 2.0.4* I really love this app. You are doing amazing work by keeping us updated. Would love a comment section if that possible. ### 5/5 — Needed information *2025-02-20, version 2.0.4* A necessary tool to find out what is happening in food safety esp now that our gov is turning to a dictator who wants to hide actual information ### 5/5 — Extremely Useful. *2025-02-16, version 2.0.4* I read about this app when researching about what I can do to prevent getting sick from food, and gosh it’s exactly that and more! Just get it!!! ### 5/5 — This app is a life saver *2025-02-13, version 2.0.4* The amount of illness and deaths this app has prevented is amazing. It enrages me that it isn’t recognized as a serious endeavor. The fact the government has denied funding makes me think the government isn’t there to help us at all. It’s just here to make money off our suffering and denying this app its rightful funding only proves it. ### 5/5 — Great app *2025-02-13, version 2.0.4* It’s a shame our current regime is trying to silence the people’s access to important information. This app makes it easy to get the information, not just on human food, but pet food as well, which I appreciate. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-04.*