He said, “Given the volume of news stories relating to food and drink incidents, we felt the need to make our partners aware of the available resources to give them as much information and support as possible.”

The website provides timely updates on food related issues, and is a free-to-use resource that anyone working at a senior level in the food and drink industry can learn from.

red24assist provides a number of pre-incident services in order to pre-empt any potential incidents and solve problems before they occur.

• Accredited Training Courses: red24assist is a licenced training centre for the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) and the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). They run a number of courses that provide training for staff members ranging from customer service to upper management.

• Crisis Management Plan Development: As it is a legal requirement for companies to have a crisis management plan in place, the team will help with the creation of these plans.

• Crisis Simulation: Eric Smith and his team will work with a company’s crisis management team to simulate an incident, evaluating the company’s approach to crisis management and offering methods of improvement.

• Legislative and Regulatory Compliance: red24assist will offer advice on how a company can deal with legislative and regulatory bodies in different global territories.

• Site Risk Assessment and Audits: The company will conduct an on-site review of an organisation’s procedures, providing a written report on any issues that would be noticed by regulatory commissions.

In the event of a product recall crisis, red24assist also offers the following services:

• Crisis Team Support: The company will assist in the assembly of multidisciplinary teams to deal with managing a crisis when/ if it arises.

• Independent Product Testing: red24assist has access to a global network of independent product testing facilities, which will aid companies in any request.

• Malicious Product Tampering: The company has a number of Malicious Product Tamper specialists who will conduct investigations into MPT incidents and ensure that an appropriate media response plan is formulated.

• Public Relations and Crisis Communications: the Crisis Communications Team will provide media training and interview preparation for organizations to deal with media coverage.

If a product recall crisis has occurred, red24assist also provides a post-incident support service, which will help implement new safety measures to minimize the risk of a repeat incident.

Companies who wish to sign up to the service can e-mail red24assist for more information at recallenquiries@red24.com.