Last month the discovery of sudan 1, an illegal and potentially carcinogenic red colour, in a consignment of Crosse and Blackwell Worcester sauce made by UK manufacturer Premier Foods triggered a mass recall in the UK food chain.
Used as both a tabletop sauce and food ingredient the recall for destruction has hit more than 580 processed foods on the shelves.
While costs to the industry are still unknown, they will include sales loss, destruction, recall, management time, public relations firms and consultants; plus the 'softer' costs such as the impact on a brand. But figures bandied around suggest the recall could hit as much as €143 million.
Strong traceability mechanisms are clearly key to dealing with a food recall in the most efficient and effective manner. But RQA, an 6000 strong international firm that specialises in product recalls, comments that an "informal survey of the food industry suggest that less than 10 per cent of food industry professionals are aware" of the latest EU food safety rules in force in January and their requirement for traceability.
"Yet incidents like the latest recall demonstrate just how important it is to have good systems in place to identify affected products, and to physically remove them from sale if necessary," says Vince Shiers, managing director of RQA Europe.
Slotting into the European framework regulation EC/178/2002 laid down in January 2002, new rules (Articles 14 to 20 of the regulation) enforced in January set out general provisions for imposing the traceability of food and feed.
While food firms have always been under the legal duty to ensure that all food in the chain is safe, the new rules now formally require that they notify the local authorities should a food or feed withdrawal from the market arise.
According to RQA, that offers training in recalls, on the day the news broke about sudan 1, the firm received a "sudden influx of bookings".
"There is clearly a need for training in this area," Shiers tells FoodNavigator.com.
In addition to training (about £250 per person a day), RQA will follow the trail of a recalled food product to help ensure that recalled products have been removed from the shelves.
In the case of a massive recall EHOs (environmental health officers) can be overwhelmed. Shiers claims food manufacturers will take on the services of RQA "to go the extra mile" in terms of responsibility.
He points out that food manufacturers cannot always rely on small stores to clear their shelves of recalled products. Taking the recent sudan recall as an example, RQA claims to have found several "of the contaminated products to still be on sale in smaller outlets".
"This confirms our experience that some small retailers are struggling to comply with FSA [Food Standards Agency] instructions, and EHO's don't have the resources to enforce recalls properly."
RQA has a network of 800 people working in Europe, paid by the food maker to go into the shops to verify that recalled products are no longer on the shelves.