Supplier Recall: What to Do When an Ingredient Is Recalled

When a supplier recalls an ingredient you bought, work through it in order: read the notice for the product, lot codes and reason; check your receiving records for those lots; put anything still on your shelves on hold; trace the lot forward to every batch that used it and every customer who got those batches; decide, with your recall plan, whether your own product has to come back; tell the customers who need to know; and document every step, including the lots you checked and didn't have. The first three steps take minutes if your records connect, and an afternoon if they don't. In the example below, a notice for one lot of coconut milk arrives at 9:05 on a Tuesday, and by 10:00 the kitchen knows it used the lot in two batches, has 8 packs on hold, and has called the three shops that got the rest. Below are the seven steps, the first hour, and what to keep afterwards.

The short version

• Read the notice: the product, the lot codes and dates, the reason, and what the supplier asks you to do.
• Check your receiving records: did that lot ever arrive?
• Hold whatever you have of it, apart from everything else, at once.
• Trace it forward: which batches used it, and which customers got those batches.
• Decide with your recall plan whether your own products are affected.
• Tell the customers who need to know, and the supplier what you found.
• TaroStack walks a supplier's lot to every batch and customer in one report. More below.

Step 1: read the notice

Write down the time the notice arrived. If anything comes of it later, the timeline starts there.

Step 2: did the lot arrive?

Look up the supplier's lot code in your receiving records: when it came, how much, and where it went. If it never arrived, write that down, with what you checked, and tell the supplier; that's the end of it. If it did, keep going. This is the step that fails when deliveries are recorded without the supplier's lot code, because then every lot of that product is a suspect. How to record lots at the door is in food receiving log template.

Step 3: hold what's left

Anything of the lot still on your shelves goes on hold at once: apart from other stock, tagged, and out of reach of the next batch or order. So does any finished product made from it that you still have. Holding first and deciding later costs nothing if the answer turns out to be "fine"; how a hold works is in hold and release procedure.

Step 4: trace it forward

From the ingredient lot to the batches that used it, then from those batches to the customers who got them, with what's still on your own shelves. A batch that used two lots, the last of the recalled one and the first of the next, is still in. How that trace works, with codes on every unit, is in what is batch tracking.

Step 5: decide whether your product is affected

The supplier's reason decides most of it. Some problems pass straight into your product; some may be dealt with by your own process; some depend on how much of the ingredient went in. That call belongs to your recall plan and, if you have one, your food safety plan and process authority, not to a guess at 9:30 in the morning. If your product has to come back, your own recall starts here; how one runs is in recall plan example.

Step 6: tell the people who need to know

If your product is coming back, tell every customer who got the affected batches, with the batch codes, what to do with the product and who to contact. Retail customers you can't list, like a market stall's, are reached by a notice where they bought it. Reply to the supplier too, with what you received, what you used, and what you're holding or returning. How to write the customer letter is in how to write a recall letter.

Step 7: document it, then close it

Keep the notice, the times, the lots checked, the trace, the decision and why, every call and letter, what was held, returned or destroyed, and the supplier's credit. Then review the supplier, and the gaps the recall showed in your own records.

The first hour, worked through

Windward Roots, the made-up taro business I use in these examples, gets a notice on a Tuesday morning that its coconut milk supplier is recalling lot CM-2231 for possible metal fragments.

Two batches, 84 packs, three shops, two market days, traced in about 15 minutes, because every delivery carries its lot and every batch says which lots went in. Without that, the honest answer would have been "every batch since October 3".

Where this stops working

On paper, Step 2 means finding the delivery note from three weeks ago, Step 4 means reading every batch sheet since, and the customers are in a different book. The supplier's lot code was never copied from the case, so "coconut milk" is all the batch sheets say, and every batch made in that time is a suspect. The first hour becomes the first day.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps the records connected, so Steps 2 to 4 are one report.

Lots recorded at the door. Receiving records the supplier's lot and dates, and scanning a supplier's GS1-128 case label fills them in. Every delivery says which lots came, how much, and where they went.

One report, lot to customer. A recall report walks any supplier lot forward to every batch that used it, mixed-lot batches included, and every customer who got those batches, with contact details and what's still on your shelves. Recording a batch noted its lots automatically, so the trace doesn't depend on anyone's handwriting.

Holds in one step. A lot can go on hold or into quarantine in one step, out of what's available to sell, pick or use. Returns from customers go back into the lot they left in, so a recall still finds them. Timed, logged traceability drills let you practice the first hour before a real notice arrives.

Lots, holds, recalls, recall reports and traceability drills are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

What should I do when a supplier recalls an ingredient?

Check whether you received the recalled lots, hold anything left, trace the lots to the batches and customers they reached, decide with your recall plan whether your products are affected, tell the customers who need to know, and document everything.

Do I have to recall my product if an ingredient is recalled?

Not always. It depends on the reason for the recall and on what your own process does. Decide with your recall plan, and your food safety plan and process authority if you have them.

How do I find out which batches used a recalled ingredient?

From your batch records, if they note each ingredient's lot. Without lot codes on the batch records, every batch made since the lot arrived has to be treated as affected.

What records should I keep after a supplier recall?

The notice, the times, the lots you checked, the trace, your decision and why, every customer contact, what was held, returned or destroyed, and the supplier's credit.