“Manufacturers and retailers urgently need to optimize their communication processes”

Secaucus, 10/05/2017 // With product recalls all over the world seemingly the new normal, the demand for improved alerting and response has become critical in reducing the risk for incident and injury. Regardless of through the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, USDA, or CPSC domestically, or though other global regulatory organizations, notifications internally and externally need to be clear and demonstrate the proper amount of clarity and concern, while reaching their intended audience.

All this while the EU has announced plans to overhaul its rapid alert system for product recalls following the recent international “egg scandal” and lessons learned from other instances of food product impurities in the near past. A reaction on the part of the authorities is long overdue, suggests Miriam-Carena Schmitt, a retail sector specialist at global information logistics experts Retarus:

“According to the consumer protectors at foodwatch e.V., hazardous food products have been recalled in more than 500 cases in Germany over the past five years. On average, this equates to at least two product recalls per week. European law first and foremost places the onus of responsibility on the producers of the food products, to protect consumers from coming to harm through unsafe or hazardous food products. Consumers these days have come to perceive precautionary product recalls as evidence of responsible business conduct on the part of a producer.

Avoid health risks: every second counts

To avoid high claims for compensation or legal redress, as well as dissatisfied customers and health risks, producers have to alert importers, wholesalers and retailers about product recalls without delay – unambiguously and by all imaginable channels. The legislator also prescribes precise documentation of the recall activities, which leaves no gaps and can easily be traced and validated. The intention is clear: Steps must be taken immediately to prevent the impacted products from being sold. So far, in the EU, a lot of the information has been reaching the stores and customers too late. This may be due to the information spread only by means of single channel. It is important, though, to alert addressees by means of the most fitting communication channel for that specific target group.

The alerts should also reinforce and build on each other: The individual supermarket stores are, for instance, best contacted by means of fax, so that the message can be taken as a paper document from the fax machine and displayed directly in the shop. Store managers and sales representatives in the field can also be informed by SMS as a supporting measure. In addition to the alert itself, a back channel is also especially essential in ensuring the availability of audit-proof documentation. It is crucial that the stores respond to the head office to confirm that the food products concerned have been removed from the shelves properly.

Producers of food products have to optimize their communication processes

In both the US and the EU, to ensure dependable communication in a crisis, producers of food products and the regulatory agencies which oversee them, therefore have to review their communication processes, and revise them if necessary. They require a flexible, automated solution, with which they are always able to reach their recipients as quickly as possible and which can verify receipt of the message with great precision in compliance with legal provisions. Cloud services offer valuable support in this regard.”

Retarus provides messaging solutions with both individually customizable APIs and standardized interfaces, for instance to business applications such as SAP. These solutions make it possible to administrate messaging campaigns for various channels directly in existing IT systems. The processing of responses from the stores and the logging of communications can be handled directly in the business application, irrespective of the channels used for the communication. Thanks to detailed analyses of delivery and throughput rates, those responsible can immediately determine whether messages have reached their recipients. In this manner, the legal duty to document the process can be fulfilled effortlessly. Numerous supermarkets and manufactures globally are currently turning to the messaging services offered by Retarus to successfully handle product recalls.

About Retarus

Retarus is a global provider of APIs, gateways, and applications for messaging, email management, and the exchange of structured data for business processes – with top performance, security, and data protection, provided from the company's self-operated data centers around the globe. Retarus (North America) Inc. is based in Secaucus, NJ, and with regional offices around the country, including Vermont and Massachusetts. Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Munich, Germany, Retarus is owner-managed and proud of its innovative strength. The company employs a staff of around 500 at 20 locations on four continents. Retarus' services are leveraged by the world’s leading companies. Retarus generates around 40 percent of its revenue in the US and offers its services both directly and in close cooperation with selected partners. Analysts constantly commend Retarus' outstanding quality and reliability. More information: www.retarus.com/us/