Product recall as an importer

Hi IFSQN member,

My company is importing and distributing food products to restaurant and retail supermarket. Sometime we will found mouldy cases of yoghurt or cheese product. It maybe 1pcs or more. Normally when receive 1 complaint from customer, we will check on our stock at warehouse (open and visual check only, no send for lab test) and any other complaint from other customer. If all ok, we will treat it as isolated case.

Just want to know is our procedure ok? Need to send for lab test if only 1pcs or 5pcs complaint involved? Any other better suggestion to improve? How do we justified how many cases/ quantity complained then we need to recall the whole batch of product from customer?

Any website or books can share where we can have more knowledge on it.

Kindly advise.

Thank you

Hi leaf,

:welcome:

It sounds like you are doing the right thing by investigating and checking stock and acting accordingly.

Sometimes you will get an indication by number of complaints but it should take into consideration the number of units that you have sold.

You should continually monitor your complaints and if you get more than one compliant from the same product and same batch then this should set alarm bells ringing and investigation into how serious the problem is, if it is the same type of complaint and whether there is a need for recall.

I would also be informing the company that you are importing from of any complaints you receive.

You might find my blog Using Trend Analysis to Reduce Complaint Levels interesting.

Regards,

Tony