In the food and beverage industry, recalls happen. They seem to hit the news on a regular basis these days, and even if you have the best equipment in place, the possibility of a problem still exists due to the nature of food processing. Recovering from a recall quickly is a must to further your brand, and these tips can help you do just that.

Know What the FDA Is Looking For

To learn more about what might be contaminated, the FDA looks at three main areas: products that could be affected, products that wouldn’t be affected, and the dilution or concentration of those affected products. Understanding all of that from the outset means a faster return to business.

Excluding Products

The single fastest way to continue getting products out to your customers is to exclude some of your products, and if you can supply a few key pieces of information, that may happen sooner. Know what bulk dry or liquid materials were added to a storage tank after a destination downstream changed. Understand what products were made in any piece of your equipment after a CIP was completed. Be able to identify products that can’t have co-mingled with any other products thank to mix-proof routing valves and physical pipe connections. Accuracy here means reduced impact at a later date.

Wondering how you can gather that data? Consider electronically tracking the movement of materials or products. Adding meters in strategic locations to monitor the flow of bulk materials may help too. The sooner you have your information in place, the sooner you can get back to business.