Properly Manage a Food Recall to Protect Public Health and Your Brand Reputation

Numerous recalls are impacting the produce industry, including tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and more. These come after two widespread recalls involving contaminated produce — onions tainted with E. coli served on burgers and cantaloupe sold at grocery stores — made national headlines and raised consumer concerns last year.

As produce recalls continue to occur, a recent study found a 57% increase in fruit, vegetable, and legume recalls in the first four months of 2025 vs. the same time period last year. In fact, produce products are among the most frequently recalled items. Consumer trust in food safety has dropped to an all-time low.

So, how do produce businesses maintain high safety standards, boost consumer trust, and protect public health?

Understand that recalls happen, even to food businesses that consistently follow gold-standard food safety procedures. It’s as important to be prepared for a recall as it is to invest in preventing them.

First, understand that recalls happen, even to food businesses that consistently follow gold-standard food safety procedures. It’s as important to be prepared for a recall as it is to invest in preventing them.
Second, a well-managed recall will help your company minimize damages, protect public health, and maintain your brand reputation. Here are the steps to accomplish this:

Plan ahead. During the chaos of a recall is not the time to figure out a game plan. Since recalls happen at any time, create a plan now so you’re properly prepared. Focus on defining roles and responsibilities, outlining communication protocols, and identifying the systems and data you’ll rely on.

Run mock simulations. Train your team about recall protocols so they’re well-prepared and confident to manage an incident. Hold regular mock recall simulations that include your trading partners (or participate in your suppliers’ practice simulations), so everyone understands processes and protocols. Mock simulations also help identify and fix process gaps before they become an issue.

Identify product info. Gathering product and customer data is often the hardest — and slowest — part of a recall. Have systems in place ahead of time so you can quickly access product names, SKUs, lot numbers and production dates, customer and distributor contact details, ingredient sources, and shipping logs. Use traceability software that links ingredients, production, and distribution data in one place. Correctly identify the product(s) impacted so you (and your trading partners) can quickly and accurately pull these products from the marketplace and supply chain.

Scope the problem. Determine what happened, why it happened, how widespread the problem is, and how many customers were impacted. Gather accurate information before sharing it with retailers and other key stakeholders. While it’s important to communicate quickly, it’s also critical to share correct information. Without a complete and accurate understanding of what happened, the products that were impacted, and the scope of the issue, messages can be cloudy or incomplete, hindering recall efforts, causing confusion, and prolonging public health risks.

Coordinate with trading partners. Use tech tools to facilitate info sharing with your trading partners, and to increase collaboration, transparency, accuracy and traceability. This allows you to pinpoint exactly where tainted products are located and work together to pull recalled products from store shelves, consumers’ homes, and across the supply chain. Tech solutions accelerate these efforts at a time when every moment counts.

Boost communications. Communicate quickly and accurately, tailoring messages to specific audiences (e.g., retail partners, regulators, consumers). Disseminate clear, direct messages that drive specific actions. Be honest and transparent, explaining what happened and how to respond.

Track progress. Monitor product recovery, returns, and destruction. Track what’s missing and follow up. Adjust communication and/or expand the recall, as necessary. Rely on a tech platform that automates response tracking, re-notifications, expansion, and progress reports for regulators, your team, and your trading partners.

Meet compliance. Document everything. Create a recall report that includes all details of the incident, including information about the item(s), reason for the recall, recalled products located and recovered, etc. Use digital reports to boost efficiency and accuracy, instead of relying on manual data collection.
Wrap up. Post-recall, debrief with your internal team and trading partners to share key learnings and identify what could be improved. Update your plan and processes accordingly.

While these are principles of a well-managed recall, they may be applied differently depending on where your company is in the supply chain, size of your company, etc.

Recalls are inherently stressful, but if you handle them properly, you can minimize the associated damages. While you can’t always prevent a recall, you can follow these steps to significantly reduce risks, protect public health, and maintain your brand reputation.

Roger Hancock, chief executive of Recall InfoLink is one of the world’s foremost experts on recalls, with experience that spans the retail, tech, data, regulatory and supply chain. Recall InfoLink makes recalls faster, easier, and more accurate across the supply chain to protect consumers and brands. As the only company focused entirely on recalls, Recall InfoLink’s solutions drive immediate action, streamline the recall process and simplify compliance. Recall InfoLink helps brands become Recall Ready by standardizing data, collaborating with their supply chains, and practicing recall simulations.