Chartis Product Recall Bulletins April 2012 - In respect of the upcoming Food Information Regulation and its focus on appropriate labelling of products, a real issue that needs to be addressed and understood is the allergen aspect. Ongoing issues with incorrect labelling and with ‘free from’ foods becoming increasingly popular, needing to guarantee a zero presence of allergens or alerting the consumer in advance to their presence, together with better analysis detection techniques has resulted in a steady growth of these types of product recalls over the last few years.

Product Recall Bulletin March 2012 - Our series on the development, planning and testing needed for an effective recall plan would not be complete without asking this vital question: How will your insurer respond at the moment of crisis?

Readers of our monthly bulletins won’t have missed the stress we have placed on businesses having a well documented and robust recall plan, ready to deploy at a moments notice. Over the years we’ve seen crisis response plans of varying degrees of quality. Yet even with the best we’ve seen one aspect can still slip through the net – testing of the plan in action to ensure all stakeholders are aware of their duties and what it entails to carry out those roles.

A recent report has found that the number of recalls in the Product Recall Bulletin January 2012 - UK for food and non-food products during 2011 increased by 27% on the previous year. This is the second year in a row that total recalls have set new records.

Product Recall Bulletin December 2011 - Concerns around food labeling recently took a big step toward resolution with the EU passing its Food Information Regulation (FIR). This aims to make package labels simpler for the end consumer to understand. FIR combines the current rules on general food and nutrition labeling into a single Europe-wide regulation applying to all member states. There will be a transitional period for suppliers to incorporate the changes, with most due by 2014 and nutritional labeling mandatory from 2016.

Product Recall Bulletin November 2011 - As we’ve highlighted recently, consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about the ingredients of their food. At the same time, we are noting increasing incidences of food fraud. Food fraud can mean products falsely claiming to include particular ingredients, watered down fruit juice concentrate or perhaps replacing ‘premium’ ingredients with substitutes.

Product Recall Bulletin October 2011 - An interesting event unfolded recently with several large retailers needing to recall Free From products – those marked as excluding particular ingredients. In this case low levels of Gluten were present, but not disclosed by the labelling. Free From product ranges are growing in market share amongst consumers sensitive to the contents of products and keen to avoid ingredients that could aggravate their own allergies or intolerances. The majority of the market is held by lines from major brands and by stores’ own brand offerings.

Product Recall Bulletin September 2011 - September has been another busy month for contaminated product recalls and illustrative of how varied the underlying causes can be. For example, we have seen several FSA alerts highlighting recalls due to incorrect ingredient identification of allergens on the labels. The ingredients recently omitted from packaging have included gluten, fish and milk, all of which can potentially lead to extremely serious complications for allergic persons consuming them in error.

Product Recall Bulletin August 2011 - A major producer of pain relief medicine has had to advise the public via the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) alert system that packs of their product are to be returned to the point of purchase.

Product Recall Bulletin July 2011 - You may have picked from the press recently that fridge freezers from a well-known brand are being recalled due to a potentially defective defrost timer that may cause the unit to overheat and catch fire. It appears that the issue was first highlighted by the London Fire Brigade investigating a fatal house fire initially suspected to have been caused by a lightning strike.