Recall/Crisis Management

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This article looks back at the events of the 1993 E. coli outbreak associated with hamburgers served at Jack in the Box restaurants along the U.S. West Coast, examining the regulatory changes inspired by the fatal outbreak and its impact. Also discussed are the corporate and industry changes, spearheaded by Dr. David Theno, that set new standards for leadership and management in foodservice and food safety. 

Livsmedelsverket, also known as the Swedish Food Agency, has published a handbook, titled, Food Control in Crisis and Heightened Preparedness.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CIFA) recently provided insight into how whole genome sequencing (WGS) and international data-sharing helped trace a 2020 multinational food safety outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes to enoki mushrooms, enabling countries to rapidly recall the affected products. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Wageningen University recently held a workshop about early warning tools and systems that can be used to manage imminent and emerging food safety issues. 

Recalls are an integral element of the comprehensive food safety system in the U.S. Removing potentially life-threatening products from store shelves and home pantries is essential, and making this process more efficient for the food banks and pantries is vital. The modernization of the current recall system must be inclusive of the entire distribution chain—including the real "last mile." 

Officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently held a conversation to explain to stakeholders how the agency handles foodborne illness outbreaks and other adverse food safety events, as well as how FDA plans to improve its processes. FDA also released a supplementary video illustrating its processes.

Every restaurant owner wants to avoid foodborne illness incidents and accusations, since a single lawsuit stemming from a food poisoning incident can have serious consequences for the restaurant's business, including poor brand image, high legal costs, and reduced customer loyalty. This article examines how restaurant operators can handle food poisoning accusations from customers.

During foodborne illness outbreak investigations, public health and regulatory authorities collect three types of data to determine a common food consumed by ill people: epidemiologic, traceback, and laboratory. State and local partners work with FDA to conduct traceback investigations and examine the food supply chain to determine the origin of the foods identified by the epidemiologic investigations. This article looks at the benefits of using incident command system (ICS) principles during emergency response coordination activities for foodborne illness outbreaks, with input from members of the FDA's CORE Network.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we talk with Kimberly (Kim) Livsey about the interworking of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) investigations of and responses to food safety incidents and foodborne illness outbreaks through the Incident Command System and Incident Management Teams (IMTs). Kim is a Senior Emergency Response Coordinator in FDA's Office of Regulatory Affairs' Office of Human and Animal Food Operations who has led a number of IMTs, including for a recent, high-profile foodborne illness outbreak.

In July 2022, FDA unveiled an enhanced Enforcement Report Subscription Service for recalls that allows users, including industry and consumers, the option to receive notifications of new and updated recalls of FDA-regulated products posted to the application using custom keywords.