By: Gordon Hayburn
It’s one of the grand ironies of our times that the proliferation of food safety standards has made people much more aware of food safety management requirements—and yet the issue of food recalls continues to be a serious cause for concern. A recall can be triggered by either an accidental event or intentional deliberate sabotage but, either way, reports suggest that food recalls can cost a company in excess of $10 million; factor in an untold amount of brand damage and the loss of consumer confidence—which might never be recaptured—and you have a potentially crippling situation on your hands. What’s a company to do? Here are six suggestions.
1. Complete a vulnerability assessment. A vulnerability assessment will identify areas of the site or parts of the process where there is an opportunity for malicious tampering to occur at the hands of disgruntled employees or people from outside the organization. Good staff training, appropriate security and ensuring supervisors and managers are aware of employee issues which may escalate to a problem are key here.