Thought Leadership

For many companies, social media is both a blessing and curse. It is a relatively inexpensive way to promote new products and increase brand awareness. It helps businesses learn more about their customers. On the other hand, complaints and poor reviews can be potentially damaging if they aren’t navigated correctly. That’s especially true during a crisis such as a product recall.   In our recent

At a recent Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) event, a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) representative spoke about the agency’s push for pathogen testing in food products. A combination of more sophisticated testing and more aggressive regulatory enforcement has helped drive up contamination recall activity in the food sector in recent quarters.

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget could have wide ranging implications in virtually every industry. In the medical and food industries, the sweeping cuts could impact the implementation of new regulations and development of new research – which could ultimately impact product recalls. The administration’s

The rise in contamination recalls, driven by advancements in testing and increased regulatory scrutiny, has received a lot of attention in recent months. It’s easy to forget the prevalence of other causes of food recalls, including undeclared allergens. In fact, the number of recalls due to undeclared allergens increased each quarter in 2016, rising from 40 in Q1 to 105 in Q4.  While these recalls make up a smaller proportion of recall activity compared to contamination, their share was fairly consistent throughout 2016.

These are challenging times for the food industry. As reported in the most recent Recall Index, Q3 set another record for recall activity, due in large part to advancements in contamination testing. At the same time, regulators are becoming increasingly vigilant and provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) are being implemented. It has been just over a year since one aspect of FSMA, the produce safety rule, was finalized.