BARCELONA – A special session entitled Building a Recall Ready Community: Creating a Culture of Transparency, Speed, and Trust took place during the GFSI Conference 2022 and featured a panel of representatives from across the supply chain coming together to discuss a community approach to improving recall process standards.
Moderated by Lisa Robinson, Vice President, Global Food Safety & Public Health at Ecolab, the session started with a discussion of recall pain points, especially now as companies face resource shortages in an increasingly global market. Robinson framed the discussion with the idea that the right partner can provide proactive solutions and expertise in times of crisis response.
Offering a manufacturer’s perspective, Leda Touliatou, Global Quality Compliance Manager at Nestlé, spoke to the importance of practicing mock recalls in a way that engages both suppliers and customers, and developing clear protocols for when a recall occurs so everyone knows what to expect and how to follow through. On the retail side, Howard Popoola, Vice President of Corporate Food Technology and Regulatory Compliance at The Kroger Company discussed the importance of communication for consumer safety and brand protection, and how the lack of a global standard and traceability are obstacles to acting quickly that we must address as a global community.
Roger Hancock, President & CEO of Recall InfoLink, was able to speak from a high view of seeing the recall process in action across the supply chain, commenting that on their own, companies have built strong recall processes, but the supply chain lacks consistency. Gaps occur when information isn’t shared efficiently, which slows down the process of getting compromised products out of the supply chain. Hancock called for a standardized and consistent solution that matches the global scope of today’s supply chain, with collaboration and trust as the keys to a more effective recall process.
Ultimately, the session concluded that leveraging the interconnectedness of the supply chain can build a community that is recall ready, with support systems in place to make recalls efficient and effective. In this context, we can accelerate the process of keeping product in the supply chain safe for consumers that protects brands and companies at the same time.
