On August 20, 2020, the Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness convened a group of food safety experts (working group) to outline how food recall processes in the United States can be improved.
This working group recognized that there is a need for fundamental change in food recall processes to protect consumers from harmful products and decrease the burden of foodborne illness. With as many as 500 food recalls a year impacting suppliers, retailers, food service, and consumers, the working group recommends a strategic approach to modernize the entire recall system and enhance its overall effectiveness for the consumer.
The working group benchmarked the current system(s) and defined an effective product recall as an item(s) rapidly identified, traced, and removed from the supply chain/commerce by downstream businesses/organizations and ultimately, communicated to consumers. Currently, there is not a singular federal or state agency, stakeholder, or node in the food chain that controls these processes. This has been identified as a major problem, as the current recall processes of the U.S. evolved due to a patchwork of approaches based on learnings from previous recall events.
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