Last year, there were 150 recalls of FSIS-regulated products. Because the numbers of recalls will likely increase in frequency in the coming years, there is a good chance your company will soon be faced with a recall situation. The average meat and poultry recall (where there is no human illness) will typically cost a company anywhere between $250,000 and $750,000. How well your company handles and recovers from the experience will depend almost exclusively on how well you develop and nurture your recall planning strategies today.
When faced with a potential recall situation, most companies wait for FSIS to signal what types and how much product to recall. This is often a mistake. Government agencies are in most cases poised to be overly aggressive and will often encourage the recall of far more product than is actually necessary. They will often ask you to cut down an entire forest to deal with a single diseased plant.