Will your food traceability systems help your company avoid the many risks in the path of most food brands?
You’ll sleep better if you know your company has thoroughly assessed your current capabilities and needs.
The frequency of food recalls in the United States has been on a slight upward trend overall, though it declined somewhat since 2016.
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.
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.
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.
