Critical recalls

What “critical” means here

Severity 5 (Critical) covers recalls where deaths or serious injuries have been reported, or where the agency itself classified the action as the highest severity (FDA Class I, NHTSA 'death/serious injury reported'). These are the recalls you should treat as urgent — stop using the product immediately and follow the agency's guidance. Common Severity-5 categories are pathogen-contaminated ready-to-eat foods (Listeria, E. coli O157, Salmonella), drug products with confirmed adverse-event reports, and vehicle defects with documented fatal crashes.

The full rubric is on the methodology page. Severity is computed deterministically from the agency’s own classification plus the source text — no editorial vibes.