How to Report an Unsafe Product — And Why Your Report Can Matter

SaferProducts.gov is the CPSC's public product safety reporting database. Anyone can submit a report — you do not need to have been injured. Near-misses, property damage, and observed hazards are all worth reporting. Reports are reviewed by CPSC analysts and used to identify hazard patterns.

When filing a report, include as much identifying information as possible: product name, brand, model number, the retailer where you purchased it, the approximate date of purchase, and a detailed description of what happened. If you have photos or videos, upload them — visual documentation is particularly valuable for reports involving structural failures, fires, or unusual behavior.

The CPSC uses report data to determine whether to open an investigation, conduct testing, or pursue a company for a voluntary or mandatory recall. If you received a report confirmation number, keep it — you may be contacted for follow-up.

For food products other than meat and poultry, report to the FDA through the MedWatch Safety Reporting Portal at fda.gov/safety/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088 (1-800-332-1088). For meat, poultry, and egg products regulated by the USDA, call the USDA MPHOTLINE at 1-888-674-6854 or use the online reporting form at askfsis.usda.gov.

When reporting a food safety concern, include the product name, brand, lot number, best-by date, UPC code, and a description of the concern. If you or someone in your household became ill, include the symptoms and timing. If you have the original packaging, keep it — FDA or USDA investigators may ask you to send it in or provide additional details.

Food safety outbreak investigations often begin when health departments receive reports of illness from multiple people who ate the same product. By reporting your illness to your local or state health department in addition to FDA, you contribute to the epidemiological picture that can link a product to an outbreak.

NHTSA's vehicle safety complaint database at nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem accepts reports from vehicle owners, lessees, and renters. You do not need to have been in an accident — reports of near-misses, unexpected component behavior, and safety concerns are all accepted.

Include your VIN, the vehicle's make, model, year, mileage at the time of the incident, and a detailed description of what happened. NHTSA's automated analysis looks for complaint patterns — when enough people report the same issue on the same vehicle model, a defect investigation is opened.

If you believe your vehicle has a safety defect that should be investigated immediately, call NHTSA's hotline at 1-888-327-4236. For serious defects involving crashes or injuries, contact both NHTSA and your local police department.

Most individual reports do not immediately trigger an investigation or recall — the agencies receive thousands of reports and have limited investigative resources. What your report does is contribute to a dataset. When analysts see the same failure mode described repeatedly across a product model, it crosses a threshold that prompts action.

For this reason, it is worth reporting even if you assume "someone else has already reported this." If 50 people independently assume that and decide not to report, the agency may see three reports instead of fifty — a pattern that looks like an isolated problem rather than a systemic one.

You can check whether a vehicle has received safety complaints on NHTSA's database even before a recall is issued. If you observe a problem with your vehicle and want to know whether others have reported the same thing, searching NHTSA's complaint database by make, model, and component is a useful starting point.