How can food manufacturers combat product recalls?
Food manufacturers face unique business risks that other sectors do not, but the correct software can make all the difference. Quorn has recently announced a recall of its meat-free mince over fears that it contains metal pieces; Stuart Hall, Sales Director at Epicor Software, UK & Ireland, has offered the following expert commentary:
“[Yesterday’s] unfortunate news that Quorn has recalled it’s frozen meat-free mince over a fear that it may contain metal pieces, isn’t the first, and won’t be the last time, a food recall has hit the headlines. If we look back to last year, we saw high profile recalls from Yeo Valley and Mars. Such recalls hit an organisation greatly both in terms of reputational damage and cost – in fact, Mars spent over a million pounds on fixing its error and suffered a loss of sales at the same time – but also bought to attention the fact that food manufacturers need to be doing more to prevent contaminated food.
“Such events highlight that food and beverage manufacturers have distinct needs and face huge risks unique to their business, this is why it is vital that they ensure they have the right processes and a business software solution in place so that they react swiftly. The right enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution is a great resource for manufacturers and is specifically designed to prevent the contamination of products, avoid any following recalls but assist in the recovery plan if they do.”