diff --git a/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/input/cluster_feeder.go b/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/input/cluster_feeder.go
index 5fef7df5deb..d41ac0db4a7 100644
--- a/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/input/cluster_feeder.go
+++ b/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/input/cluster_feeder.go
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ func watchEvictionEvents(evictedEventChan <-chan watch.Event, observer oom.Obser
 }
 
 // Creates clients watching pods: PodLister (listing only not terminated pods).
-func newPodClients(kubeClient kube_client.Interface, resourceEventHandler cache.ResourceEventHandler, namespace string) v1lister.PodLister {
+func newPodClients(kubeClient kube_client.Interface, resourceEventHandler cache.ResourceEventHandler, namespace string, stopCh <-chan struct{}) v1lister.PodLister {
 	// We are interested in pods which are Running or Unknown (in case the pod is
 	// running but there are some transient errors we don't want to delete it from
 	// our model).
@@ -170,15 +170,17 @@ func newPodClients(kubeClient kube_client.Interface, resourceEventHandler cache.
 		cache.Indexers{cache.NamespaceIndex: cache.MetaNamespaceIndexFunc},
 	)
 	podLister := v1lister.NewPodLister(indexer)
-	stopCh := make(chan struct{})
 	go controller.Run(stopCh)
+	if !cache.WaitForCacheSync(stopCh, controller.HasSynced) {
+		klog.ErrorS(nil, "Failed to sync Pod cache during initialization")
+	}
 	return podLister
 }
 
 // NewPodListerAndOOMObserver creates pair of pod lister and OOM observer.
-func NewPodListerAndOOMObserver(kubeClient kube_client.Interface, namespace string) (v1lister.PodLister, oom.Observer) {
+func NewPodListerAndOOMObserver(kubeClient kube_client.Interface, namespace string, stopCh <-chan struct{}) (v1lister.PodLister, oom.Observer) {
 	oomObserver := oom.NewObserver()
-	podLister := newPodClients(kubeClient, oomObserver, namespace)
+	podLister := newPodClients(kubeClient, oomObserver, namespace, stopCh)
 	WatchEvictionEventsWithRetries(kubeClient, oomObserver, namespace)
 	return podLister, oomObserver
 }
diff --git a/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/main.go b/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/main.go
index d59685fd3ae..badca2fc634 100644
--- a/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/main.go
+++ b/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/recommender/main.go
@@ -202,12 +202,15 @@ func defaultLeaderElectionConfiguration() componentbaseconfig.LeaderElectionConf
 }
 
 func run(healthCheck *metrics.HealthCheck, commonFlag *common.CommonFlags) {
+	// Create a stop channel that will be used to signal shutdown
+	stopCh := make(chan struct{})
+	defer close(stopCh)
 	config := common.CreateKubeConfigOrDie(commonFlag.KubeConfig, float32(commonFlag.KubeApiQps), int(commonFlag.KubeApiBurst))
 	kubeClient := kube_client.NewForConfigOrDie(config)
 	clusterState := model.NewClusterState(aggregateContainerStateGCInterval)
 	factory := informers.NewSharedInformerFactoryWithOptions(kubeClient, defaultResyncPeriod, informers.WithNamespace(commonFlag.IgnoredVpaObjectNamespaces))
 	controllerFetcher := controllerfetcher.NewControllerFetcher(config, kubeClient, factory, scaleCacheEntryFreshnessTime, scaleCacheEntryLifetime, scaleCacheEntryJitterFactor)
-	podLister, oomObserver := input.NewPodListerAndOOMObserver(kubeClient, commonFlag.IgnoredVpaObjectNamespaces)
+	podLister, oomObserver := input.NewPodListerAndOOMObserver(kubeClient, commonFlag.IgnoredVpaObjectNamespaces, stopCh)
 
 	model.InitializeAggregationsConfig(model.NewAggregationsConfig(*memoryAggregationInterval, *memoryAggregationIntervalCount, *memoryHistogramDecayHalfLife, *cpuHistogramDecayHalfLife, *oomBumpUpRatio, *oomMinBumpUp))
 
diff --git a/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/utils/vpa/api.go b/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/utils/vpa/api.go
index 949cdc67402..e6e91080104 100644
--- a/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/utils/vpa/api.go
+++ b/vertical-pod-autoscaler/pkg/utils/vpa/api.go
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ func NewVpasLister(vpaClient *vpa_clientset.Clientset, stopChannel <-chan struct
 		cache.Indexers{cache.NamespaceIndex: cache.MetaNamespaceIndexFunc})
 	vpaLister := vpa_lister.NewVerticalPodAutoscalerLister(indexer)
 	go controller.Run(stopChannel)
-	if !cache.WaitForCacheSync(make(chan struct{}), controller.HasSynced) {
+	if !cache.WaitForCacheSync(stopChannel, controller.HasSynced) {
 		klog.ErrorS(nil, "Failed to sync VPA cache during initialization")
 		os.Exit(255)
 	} else {