Stop for one minute and think of the impact a major food safety incident can have on your operation. Customers, associates, sales, brand value—and your image—all can be severely impacted. Every year there are hundreds of recalls, and preparation is critical.
It is clear that government agencies, such as the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency’s Marine Fisheries Institute (NOAA MFI) cannot successfully monitor the problems alone. It has to be a team effort involving the government, manufacturers, suppliers—and even you.
Below are six ideas on how to handle product recalls based on the experience of our team of quality assurance professionals and the information they have amassed from conducting more than 2,000 food safety inspections each year.
1. Put a Crisis Management Plan in Place
- Set up a crisis management system for both operations and public relations prior to a recall incident.
- Systems should include business, home, and cell numbers, e-mail addresses and emergency contact information for a wide variety of individuals. Contact information should go deep into your organization and the organizations of each of your distributors and suppliers to include quality assurance management, operations and property level personnel. For example, at the property level, you want contacts for both the general manager and purchasing manager. Set up a supplier database with contact information at every level including your account manager and individuals involved in quality assurance. Finally, there should be back-up alternates for every contact, accounting for vacation or travel.
- Identify responsibilities, including who will be involved each step of the recall and your company’s spokesperson. Notify all employees of this chain of command.
- Make sure you have contacts within federal, state and local government. This helps when things are happening fast. Introduce yourself to these individuals before an incident so you can turn to them in a potential crisis.
- Look to the FDA, USDA, the CDC and your supplier in collaboration for accurate information. Try to make sure you are dealing with facts; not what you hear in the media.
- Consider holding mock recalls or crisis drills at least once a year to test your systems. Evaluate your systems after each recall.
- Belong to associations that keep you posted on the latest information. Among the numerous industry groups and associations to consider are the National Restaurant Association, the Institute of Food Technologists, the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety and the Texas A&M Nutrition and Food Science Advisory Council.
2. Utilize Government Notification Systems
- Monitor notifications from government agencies (FDA, USDA, CPSC, CDC and NOAA MFI). Many of these agencies have free notification systems; some even allow you to be highly selective of the types of recall notices you receive.
- Besides government systems, there are several reputable “for fee” services that monitor these sites for you and deliver the recall information to you through detailed e-mail alerts.
- Currently, the USDA and FDA in cooperation with CDC take the lead in recall notification and alerting the public of a public health crisis.
3. Develop Action Steps in Case of a Recall
- Keep abreast of all USDA and FDA Recalls (Class I, II, and III recalls) with special action steps for Class I recalls.
- When you receive notification, determine if you have the product.
- Should you have the product, implement previously designed procedures to either quarantine or destroy the product. In Class I recall situations, the government requires appropriate action to either not serve or remove the product.
4. Address Proper Quality Assurance Practices Prior to a Recall
Monitoring recalls themselves is not that difficult, but implementing the proper quality assurance practices to prevent being part of a recall is absolutely imperative. Some of the pre-recall measures to put into place include:
- Know your source and use only approved suppliers that you know.
- Proactively inspect your suppliers and conduct proper supplier audits in the field and at supplier and distributor locations (including internationally) to assure that products are wholesome. This should assure that product is handled properly throughout the entire channel of distribution.
- Develop sanitation protocols: implement sanitation procedures and train employees to maintain protocols.
- Receive and handle product properly on property to ensure your customers receive wholesome products delivered in the right condition, consider closely inspecting your entire day’s deliveries (on a surprise basis). You can either conduct the inspection yourself or hire and independent quality assurance inspection firm to go through every truck and every delivery for possible food safety issues.
- Train (and re-train) associates on proper food handling and storage, proper personal hygiene and hand washing, surface sanitization (including equipment and food preparation areas), and prevent cross-contamination. Particularly in the hospitality business, with high turnover and language differences, associate awareness of these issues is key to keeping the supply chain safe.
5. Be Part of the Solution
Proactively working with government agencies, local health departments and national trade associations can help promote greater food safety awareness. This work can help to raise the bar on food safety standards.
6. Take a Long Range View of Quality Assurance
While there are many things to consider in building a respectable food safety program, the best approach is to find suppliers that continuously update themselves and educate you. Through education, you and your staff will have the knowledge and information to quickly react to recalls.
Tracking hundreds of recall notices each year is a time consuming task, but by monitoring government systems and vigilantly managing your own food safety program, especially by making quality assurance a priority, you will be on the right path to keeping your guests safe.
Ed Thompson is vice president of quality assurance at Avendra in Rockville, Md. He can be reached at [email protected].