Product Recall and Withdrawal Case Study

Client:

Major food manufacturer

Objectives/background:

RQA Europe were contacted by a major food manufacturer in the UK who advised that certain products manufactured by them may have a quality issue. The client provided a list of approximately 50 stores across the UK and the information regarding the products and requested that RQA Europe visit these stores and obtain the products from the shelves.

Methodology:

RQA Europe contacted field representatives in areas close to the stores listed and gave them specific instructions on what to do with the products once found on the shelves. The representatives were asked to purchase the products and then dispose of them carefully once at home.

Outcome:

The client was given a spreadsheet detailing how many affected products were found at each store and confirmation that they have been destroyed. The entire process took less than 4 days.

Footnote

As a manufacturer of food or non-food products, it is not sufficient to simply inform a store to take products of the shelf at the time of a product recall incident. Often the message can become distorted. For example, in one store we visited for this recall, on receiving instructions from the manufacturer, the store manager had left all the contaminated products on the shelf and removed all of the safe products made by the manufacturer's competitors. It was only when the RQA field representative visited the store that this was discovered.