Should a mock recall include contacting the customer?

Hi All, 

When doing a mock recall do we have to go as far as calling our customers and tell them we are doing a mock recall and we would like to know how many units of the product we are recalling they have on their shelves? 

We are FSSC 22000 accredited and we usually go all the way and call customers, which takes a lot of our time. The auditor sort of mentioned in our last audit that we don not have to call the customers as long as we can account for everything. 

anyone with more knowledge please. i want to do 2019's mock recall. 

Thanks, 

Hi Foodtech,

See this recent thread on the topic:

https://www.ifsqn.co...l=+mock +recall

Personally I would not go as far as directly communicating with the customer especially mentioning recall and units/products etc due to the potential for confusion and panic. If your standard requires contact, I don't see the harm in making contact to establish it's possible but under a different pretence i.e. query on a product, or even just asking them to confirm contact details for your general records. There are some arguments for contact and mentioning recall in the thread and I can appreciate the logic in these. May depend on your relation with the customer.

Do not call customers for a mock recall.

Don't call, just ensure your team knows the steps up until the point of actually calling. 

i have never called a customer for a mock recall. 

We do not call during a mock recall, but look to ensure our contact list is upto date through CRS and Slaes forces.

We always involve the customer in our mock recalls and one of our steps is for the customer to confirm the number of units received.

The reasons for us doing this are:

1. The Sales team responsible for customer contact with us are involved in the Recall trial and it maintains awareness in that dept. of what would be required in a real recall scenario.

2. The customer involvement means that we have verification of what we actually despatched, exact number of units, etc.

3. The customer involvement means that they get experience of our Recall procedures and can feedback any comments.

4. Customers and external auditors have a greater sense of assurance that our recall procedures are in place and are being trialled as realistically as possible.

In a nutshell, I don't see that you can really do a trial of your recall procedures without trialling the communications with your customer(s) as part of it?

There are also downsides to this, of course.

1. Weaknesses and mistakes might be visible to your customer.

2. Customers aren't always motivated to participate in a timely manner and communicate back their information.

I would not recommend calling customers during a mock recall.

Generate the documents that you would (notification emails, etc) and save them in the records of your mock recall.

If anything, have the assigned person contact the customer point of contact with the message of "we are confirming our contact information, is there anything you'd like to update for us to have on file?"

Two auditors we've had here have said that we have to call the customer. Otherwise it's not a full mock recall.

Wehave to make sure that the customer contact information is correct.

And that's all you need tell the them when contacting them. I don't see why that should be harmful/wrong?

If you have a good and close bond with the customer you might even tell them the real reason, we've done so several times.

Hi,

not in general, but we select in any mock recall one or two customers (mostly UK clients), especially in the case when the test is not performed during office time.

Crisis Manager contact verification we do on regular basis, but this is not linked to mock recalls.

Rgds

moskito

We involve customers during our annual mock recall.

We send them an email informing them that we need an updated recall contact information, the email will list the current contact and ask them to confirm or update the  list. Then the email also lets them know that we are currently conducting a mock recall exercise and that we appreciate their timely response as we are also tallying response time.

I always get responses within the hour of sending the email and the max is 4 hours response time. So I think customers are very well aware of this exercise from their suppliers.

I think its a good practice and it shows your customer that you are doing your due diligence in ensuring that your food safety is robust.

I always contact the customers, and have been advised to do so by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, otherwise you can't prove that you could get in contact with them in a real scenario.

One client I have might have 30 or so customers per batch ( they pack to order) and all 30 have to be contacted if that's a delivery we choose to check.

I have tried to get advisement that allows us not to have to do it but everyone in the competent authorities says the same, you have to to ensure you have the correct contact details. At this stage the customers are used to this procedure, but it is like pulling teeth to get some of the customers to reply to the e mails.

Looks like we need a Poll.

I can recall one thread here where, I think, the Consultant categorically said no need.

But others have certainly implemented as previous thread.

IM(BRC)EX has not been auditor mentioned.

I would make sure the mock recall includes a verification that customer contact information is present. It is a good idea to make sure the contact information is correct, but I would not do that during a mock recall. As stated above, too high of risk of panic/confusion. I would make sales or customer service responsible for verifying contact information on some frequency; and document it.

-John

Agree with others where you should verify all customer contact information.  Ensure it is up to date and the right persons have the information.  I would recommend the information is in both electronic and hard copy format.  Hard copy in case of emergencies where you don't have access to electronic copy.