Charts to read and discuss

Chart 1 of 2 · Food and drug safety

How many food recalls are for salmonella each year?

The FDA classified 77 food recalls for salmonella in 2025; the most since 2013 was 80 in 2016. Salmonella is a germ that causes food poisoning, often from eggs, produce, nuts, spices and pet food. A recall counts once however many products it covers, in the year FDA first listed it in its weekly Enforcement Report. Chartly sorted FDA's written reasons by their key words; a recall that names listeria too is counted on the listeria chart instead. Meat, poultry and most egg products are USDA's to recall and aren't included. The newest salmonella recalls, this year's included, are listed below.

Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Enforcement Reports (openFDA food recall data) (Public domain (U.S. government work); source U.S. Food and Drug Administration, openFDA) · Data as of Nov 4, 2026

Questions

1. In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
2. Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
3. Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?

Chart and numbers: chart.ly/charts/salmonella-food-recalls-per-year · More free charts at chart.ly

Chart 2 of 2 · Inflation

How fast are US prices rising?

The inflation rate was 3.7% in September 2026: how much consumer prices changed from the same month a year earlier. Each point makes that comparison, back to 1914, the first year BLS can compare. Inflation peaked at 23.7% in June 1920 and at 14.8% in March 1980; the 9.1% of June 2022 was the highest since 1981. Prices fell as fast as 15.8% a year in 1921 and 10.7% in 1932. BLS collected no prices in October 2025, during a lapse in federal funding, so that month and October 2026 are missing.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index (CPI-U, all items) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Sep 30, 2026

How to read this chart

Each point compares consumer prices in a month with the same month a year earlier. A value of 3 means things cost about 3% more than a year before; below zero means prices fell. The chart shows how fast prices change, not how high they are.

Questions

1. Find two times when inflation was highest. What was happening in the country then?
2. If inflation falls from 8% to 3%, are prices going down, or just rising more slowly?
3. Find a stretch when the line is below zero. Why might falling prices be bad news for workers and businesses?

Chart and numbers: chart.ly/charts/us-inflation-rate · More free charts at chart.ly