We’re still only on the second day of Business Continuity Awareness Week (BCAW) 2019 and we have another important news story…
It was announced yesterday that Cow & Gate are recalling a batch of “Cheesy Broccoli Bake Stage 3 (10+ months)” because it may contain small pieces of blue rubber, which makes this product unsafe to eat.” If you are in any way concerned and want to see full details of the recall, these are available on the FSA website.
As usual though, we are primarily interested in the broader issues. We noted in January that there had been a noticeable rise in food product recalls between 2017 and 2018; and there is little sign of a fall-off this year, with 20 recalls already in the first four months of 2019. In particular, there appear to be a growing number of recalls due to contamination with plastic, metal or other foreign objects in the last year or two. We would remind everybody working in the food sector to follow best practice guidance (eg from the British Retail Consortium) on product recalls; and to ensure that recall plans dovetail with the wider business continuity management framework, in particular the crisis communications plan.