We’ve seen sweeping regulatory changes before, but the FDA’s anticipated regulation of cannabis and CBD-infused products – a market expected to reach more than $20B globally by 2024 – promises to pose significant and unprecedented challenges to food and cosmetics manufacturers already using cannabidiol as an ingredient.
Continue ReadingWYou identified a potential safety issue with your product and conducted an investigation. You worked closely with your regulator to plan for and execute a recall. Your team worked tirelessly to communicate with consumers and fix the issue. Then the regulator closed the recall. And you moved on. Or so you thought. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration recently launched separate investigations into whether two GM recalls conducted years ago were inadequate.
Continue ReadingMost people have heard of blockchain technology as it relates to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. In fact, blockchain was initially developed specifically to record and track bitcoin transactions. As the technology becomes more widely adopted, however, developers and businesses are finding more and more applications for the secure tracking it enables.
Continue ReadingWhen a consumer’s smartphone spontaneously combusts, the word-of-mouth news spreads to millions within days if not hours. If a certain blood pressure medicine is contaminated with a potentially cancer-causing agent, it could take months before routine testing uncovers the defect, and weeks more before the news and notifications slowly trickle.
Continue ReadingIt’s no surprise that notifying consumers directly about product recalls is the most effective way to get dangerous products out of circulation. What is surprising is how much more effective direct notifications are, and why manufacturers and retailers don’t use them more often. A study last year by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) found that recalls which employ direct notifications have a healthy response rate of about 50 percent.
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