4 replies to this topic

[Iswarya]

Hello to my fellow IFSQN community!

I have a question regarding Mock Recall to be conducted in my Catering Company. My company cooks in bulk for our partner restaurants and food items are sent on an everyday basis. I am just drafting the SOPs and would like to get some clarity on Mock Recall.

 

I have experience of conducting mock food recalls in manufacturing and wholesale distribution, but for catering industry I am a little confused as the food items have limited shelf life. Can someone please shine some intellect on this entire process to give me an idea on how to carry the process forward?

 

Thanks a lot in advance!

[SQFconsultant]

it would actually be the same process as your background in food manufacturing.

 

When I was was Hilton International as a Chef, we wrote a recall plan - the only twist was that it included the need for the sister hotels (that we supplied) and off-site catering locations to make extreme efforts to contact their customers (guests) in the event we recevied a notification from one of our suppliers of a recall where their ingredient went into the finished product that was distributed from our large format kitchens as well as the potenital inputs (negative) that could happen in our own storage, kitchens, transport methods etc.

 

Frankly, it still is one of the biggest recall projects I ever worked on as there is just so many things that can happen prior to delivery to the guest.

 

So, I think  you will find the major add on will be the notification process to each guest and how you will go about that - the thing is by the time you do a recall 99.9% of the food will have been consumed, assuming short shelf-life - ours was max of 24 hours.

[Iswarya]

Thank you Mr. Oster.

 

The limited shelf life was the confusing factor for me. However now as you mentioned it is important to contact the customers of restaurants to recall any unconsumed food.

 

Lets consider the types of customers we would have

1) Dine-in costumers at the restaurant- Food can be taken off shelf and table immediately after the notification

2) Ordered for a home delivery- contact details obtained via the food ordering platform would enable us to notify them and recall the food.

3) Food that was ordered for a 'take away'-  the restaurants must probably be getting contact details while taking the orders to facilitate the recall.

 

It would be helpful if you could provide some feedback if my SOPs can be based on the above plan.

Thanks!

it would actually be the same process as your background in food manufacturing.

 

When I was was Hilton International as a Chef, we wrote a recall plan - the only twist was that it included the need for the sister hotels (that we supplied) and off-site catering locations to make extreme efforts to contact their customers (guests) in the event we recevied a notification from one of our suppliers of a recall where their ingredient went into the finished product that was distributed from our large format kitchens as well as the potenital inputs (negative) that could happen in our own storage, kitchens, transport methods etc.

 

Frankly, it still is one of the biggest recall projects I ever worked on as there is just so many things that can happen prior to delivery to the guest.

 

So, I think  you will find the major add on will be the notification process to each guest and how you will go about that - the thing is by the time you do a recall 99.9% of the food will have been consumed, assuming short shelf-life - ours was max of 24 hours.

[Charles.C]

Hi Iswarya,

 

One step which is usually emphasised  in examples is to ensure yr mock recall avoids causing a real panic.

[Iswarya]

Yes true that!

 

I'll keep that in mind! :D

Hi Iswarya,

 

One step which is usually emphasised  in examples is to ensure yr mock recall avoids causing a real panic.