How Food Manufacturers And Retailers Collaborate To Limit Consumer Exposure To Recalls

By Jennifer McEntire and Patricia Stockton, Grocery Manufacturer’s Association

When a manufacturer determines it’s necessary to recall a product, the real objective is to make sure consumers don’t eat that suspect product. At the point a recall is issued, potentially contaminated product can be in one of three locations:

• A consumer’s home
•  In the grocery store
• Elsewhere in the distribution system

Let’s focus on the middle scenario, where a food needs to be pulled off the shelf or out of the retailer’s stock room. Time is of the essence in order to limit exposure. The communication between manufacturers, the retailers, and often others in between, is critical.

When a food that can potentially cause a serious adverse health consequence or death to humans or animals is put into distribution, the “sending” and “receiving” parties must file a report with the FDA in the Reportable Food Registry (RFR). Part of this entry requires the entity that distributed the food to disclose everyone the food was shipped to, in order to begin developing a traceability diagram.

Depending on the situation, the FDA may follow up with each of these recipients to understand the status of the product. However, no manufacturer is going to wait for the FDA to begin tracing food forward toward the consumer; the manufacturer will act quickly to deliver communications to their customers advising them of the situation and how to handle the potentially contaminated product.

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