Food recalls are a public health challenge shared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), regulatory partners, and industry. Federal and state partners work together with industry to ensure prompt, effective responses to recalls. When regulatory stakeholders understand one another's roles, resources, and authorities, they can collaborate effectively at the local, state, territorial, tribal, and federal levels, and recalls can be processed faster and more efficiently—helping keep potentially dangerous products away from consumers.

With that in mind, a collaborative recall project took shape in Georgia amid the pandemic in 2020. Utilizing virtual meeting platforms, the FDA Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), along with state recall coordinators and their leadership teams, took a closer look at the existing regulatory recall response efforts in the state of Georgia and where collaboration was present among state and federal agencies. They confirmed that, while certain regulatory roles may overlap, more effective coordination and collaboration can prevent duplicative efforts. Better coordination and collaboration helps save time, improves information sharing, and decreases the burden on the recalling firm(s) to provide the same records to multiple agencies.