Food Recall Plan Prep

Planning for the Worst Case Scenario

Does your company have a food safety recall plan? Is it up to date with regulatory expectations?

Perhaps not. Perhaps you are thinking that the chances of a food pathogen contaminating your product line are so remote, you can simply deal with it when a recall happens.

Think again. A Class I recall — by definition, one that threatens public health and a risk of death — can be a business-altering event for a company unprepared to manage the situation effectively.  In our experience, companies with a recall plan in place are those that care about customers, pay attention to their image and reputation and, not surprisingly, want to build their brands and drive sales.

Yet with all the obvious benefits of recall pre-planning, we’ve seen businesses that act as if their executive offices had been hit by lightning. They don’t know what to do, and neither does the rest of the organization. Chaos ensues. The resulting drop in sales for the recalled item(s), to say nothing of the hit to reputation, can end up costing millions. Worse, in the era of social media, a single recall event, if handled poorly, can linger online for months, if not years, making reputation recovery a long, drawn out challenge.

SAGE Food Safety Consultants helps our clients plan for the worst case scenario of a serious Class I recall. Our plan outlines responsibilities up and down the organization chart, and offers hour-by-hour checklists to insure that no detail is being overlooked. Our strategy is very simple: turning a potentially negative recall event into a positive opportunity to demonstrate your company’s competence, its regard for your customers, and a desire to protect the general public’s health and safety. That’s an outcome any company could hope for.

Help needed? Reach out to Gale at 513.236.6264 or gale@galeprince.com.