Mock Recalls: What Are They, Why Are They Important, And How Do I Perform One? (Part Three Of Three)

By Sam Lewis, editor, Food Online and Jennifer McEntire, Ph.D., VP of science operations at GMA

View the entire web chat or check out part one and part two of this series

In part two of Mock Recalls: What Are They, Why Are They Important, And How Do I Perform One? Jennifer McEntire, Ph.D., VP of science operations at GMA, began handling questions from the web chat’s live audience. Here, in the third, and final, portion of the series, Dr. McEntire continues answering questions from the audience.

Sam: What is the recall protocol for retail grocers? What’s the difference in that protocol when the recall is for a pre-packaged item versus an item that is packaged in a store, such as fruit bowl filled with cantaloupe?

Dr. McEntire: The fundamentals, I think are the same, so you should have a recall plan. The challenge that can be faced, it’s just a more complex scenario when you have an item, such as that fruit-bowl scenario, because, depending on whether that fruit bowl was prepared at a commissary or whether it was prepared within the grocery store, kind of who has what information, who knows what went into that fruit bowl when we’re looking at the lots of a product, produce that was chopped to make that fruit bowl. So yes, that’s a more complex scenario because it’s a multi-ingredient type of product.