I wasnt going to comment, because I sure dont think its an epic tale, but here is the closest I have.
We co-pack beverages for multiple companies that partake in what we call "Seasonal R&D". Every year, around every season change we get a whole slew of new products to try and push out. Just a few months back, right around the time of the big "fall flavors" roll out - pumpkin this, pumpkin that, throw in some spiced apples, one of our customers (that were a little behind the ball anyways, as far as a releasing to the market along side their competitors) were really pushing us to run 3 ( much larger than normal) commission runs of a new product. From the get go, no one at the plant level was too happy about this formula - technically unstable is what we will call it. However the customer owned the formula, they'd had already purchased about 28 trailers full of ingredients so they could make 1,000,000,000 cases of the stuff, and it would just be the best thing ever. go.go.go.go.go.go
No one really looked at the issues, and those that did couldn't get the message across effectively.
Not to mention this customer... feeling the sting of other companies advertising the release of their fall flavors. The decision was made. We will not wait until it clears micro / commission evaluation before shipping, We will send it to the DCs, Prep it, and wait with great anticipation for the word, meanwhile samples are going out for consumer surveys and pilot trials at the store level >.< AHHHH - Total nightmare, and there was nothing I could do to veto this.
Needless to say, we started seeing issues, bloaters in the DCs, physical changes in the product, spoilage issues only (LUCKILY - it could have been much worse). So then.. there were some whispers "Market withdrawal" .... "recall at store level" ..... very eerie. Everyone was having discussions behind closed doors and were very matter of fact about what they were doing. That is the best way I could describe it.
So long story short - we ended up bringing it all back. Typical mock recall procedures, just for real this time. Keep your cool, follow the system, we know it works.... just felt like practice. The product had only really made it to the DCs so it was considered like a market withdrawal. - No regulatory involvement, The customer never got to release even a single ad for the product - ended up chalking it up to "Market Trial" Roughly 10,000 cases produced. Luckily everything was kept out of the news, however the financial hit to both my company and the customer was huge - between all the cases destroyed, and the humongous remainder of ingredients that we now have to deal with. It just goes to show that the systems exist for a reason -and they should be followed ALWAYS!
Sincerely,
Lame Story Teller