There are 4 things you can count on in 21st Century from a UK perspective death, taxes, referendums and food product recalls.
Product recalls appear to be a recurring theme in the UK food industry - a total of 159 recalls in 2015 a 78% rise on the previous year. The Food Standards Agency has consistently reported increased food safety incidents since annually since 2009 despite a decrease in 2013 the year of the infamous
Horsemeat Scandal (
figure 1).
Recently in August 2016 there has been another major food product recall in this instance yogurt produced by Yeo Valley for major high street supermarkets such as the Co-operative, ASDA, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose was considered to possibly contain rubber particles.
It is estimated that in the first week of February 2016 that foreign objects e.g. plastic and glass accounted for 2 out of 8 food product recalls.
In addition to foreign objects product recalls arising from the presence of bacteria e.g. salmonella, listeria and product labelling omissions or unlisted ingredients has led to retailers demanding reimbursement from manufacturers for any administrative cost or loss incurred as a result of rectifying these anomalies. Seemingly avoidable non-conformances such as unlisted ingredient omissions accounted for 59% of food product recalls in 2015.
Despite the alarming increase in food product recalls UK Government officials and regulators shroud these non-conformances under the umbrella of food “safety” rather than food “quality”. Proposals for an industry wide steering committee may yield limited results if quality management issues arising from poor process management, weak inspection and testing regimes are not addressed. Misplaced emphasis on effective food recall systems rather that robust quality management systems will only maintain the status quo – a continued escalation in food product recalls and reduced stakeholder satisfaction.
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