March/April 2021 - 19

TRACEABIL ITY OPERATIONS
would be rendered safe to consume.
All of this must be documented and
completed by the Recall or Crisis
Management team.
Evaluate the plans
Once traceability and recall plans
are written, the team's preparedness
should also undergo an unbiased and
comprehensive review. This process will
assess traceability and recall exercises
in practice, evaluating each aspect of
the plans, while determining whether
employees are challenging themselves
and taking any necessary corrective
actions. This allows for a real-time
trace and recall exercise, providing a
deep dive into the site's performance
and team-member expertise.
Throughout the process, the team's
ability to execute will be evaluated,
including keeping track of the time
it takes to perform the collection and
communication of information at each
step. This will confirm the effectiveness
The success of these
plans is largely
dependent upon the
knowledge and skills of
those executing on it.
of the plan and team, while identifying
gaps in their application and execution.
Any resulting corrective actions will
help support more effective future
performance.
The success of these plans is largely
dependent upon the knowledge and
skills of those executing on it. For
this reason, the selection and training
of the traceability and recall team
members is a critical activity in their
development and execution. It may
be best to first identify the activities
that must be covered throughout
the process before identifying team
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members, which may help dictate
responsibilities for those activities.
Further, education and ongoing
training is paramount, ensuring the
team's preparation.
While detailed planning and
execution is involved in each of the
necessary steps, when the ingredients
or finished products processors are
responsible for are traceable and can
be recalled, dangerous problems can be
caught and quickly mitigated, possibly
saving lives in the process.
Will these plans ever be needed?
Hopefully, not. But when they are, it
is a high-stakes situation with critical
consequences. And by having written
and tested traceability and recall plans,
processors will be able to leave any
surprises to books and movies.
- Chuck Mead is a food safety
professional for AIB International. He
has more than 40 years of experience in
food processing and food safety auditing.
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Brian Hill
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bhill@palconsystems.com
www.palconsystems.com
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March/April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March/April 2021
