How To Plan for a Food Recall: Expect Surprises
9 May, 2018

The number and size of food recalls are rising in North America. Regulatory agencies are more likely to force recalls early, before many people are at risk.

Together, these trends makes it more likely that your company will participate in a recall sooner or later.

Your food company doesn’t even have to be at fault.

You could easily find your brand in an ugly news story that threatens its survival.

The best advice for food companies is to confront the risk head on rather than trying to minimize or ignore it.

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Food Recalls: 8 Ways to Contain the Staggering Costs
Food Recalls: 8 Ways to Contain the Staggering Costs
2 May, 2018

Food recalls are increasing in frequency. In this article, you’ll read eight suggestions for food brands and manufacturers to reduce the likelihood of their products being recalled.

You’ll also read about current trends for food recalls in the United States and Canada, with an estimate of the typical costs of a single food recall.

This post opens by  the continuing toll of a 2017 food recall in the United States and Canada. The cause was E. coli contamination in soy nut butter. The product sickened 32 people in 12 states.

The article ends with a list of suggested resources and further reading.

Imagine the most stressful time of your career.

If you work for a food company, it may well be a product recall.

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Nightmare Food Recall: How E. coli Destroyed a Small Brand
Nightmare Food Recall: How E. coli Destroyed a Small Brand
25 April, 2018

After a brief absence, the E. coli bacterium is back in the mainstream North American news media. It reappeared in headlines in April and May, with the recall of contaminated romaine lettuce.

This time, E. coli is blamed for sickening at least 197 people in 35 states, with five deaths. And 60 people in five states are sick with Salmonella contamination, apparently from sliced melons. 

The news media report the most attention-grabbing elements of food recalls. In contrast, this article provides both a food-industry perspective and a human context that’s often missing from consumer news coverage.

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