GS1 announces new Global Product Recall Standard
GS1 has announced ratification of a new global product recall standard, along with an implementation guide for multi-jurisdictional recall notifications.
The new standard is designed to serve as “a common-sense blueprint” allowing all supply chain stakeholders to implement more effective product recall processes and notifications. The standard defines, standardizes and harmonizes the critical attributes to be captured and shared among trading parties and regulators during a product recall alerting and messaging process.
“The GS1 Product Recall Standard will enable manufacturers, retailers and suppliers to work more closely together,” said Procter & Gamble Market Logistics Leader Daniel Triot. “By leveraging a system of global supply chain standards that we all know and use today, product recall will become a function that is embedded into all our global supply chains.”
Close to three years of industry-driven work has lead to the standard, which identifies the key principles of traceability and demonstrates how to apply them for effective product recall.
“Traditional 1:1 notifications from supplier to receiver have no standards,” said Jon Mellor, GS1 director of external communications, in an email. “This means that the receiver (retailer, wholesaler, etc.) must contend with a variety of recall communications at least as numerous as its variety of suppliers.”
Mellor offered a scenario in which a product recall notification comes via fax or email, but either omits a GS1 identifying number or lists it incorrectly.
“Unfortunately, product names are inefficient for supply-chain operations, including recalls,” Mellor said. “There’s a lot of ambiguity due to flavor names, regular vs. fat-free, sugar-free, caffeine-free, plus different packaging types, regional production lines, etc.
“Use of the GS1 Product Recall Standard means that recall notices will follow some basic guidelines, so the people working for those receivers will spend less time pinpointing the exact product that must be taken off the shelf. This both protects the consumer and limits the amount of product that must be removed.”
GS1 is a non-profit organization that designs and manages a global system of supply chain standards. The Product Recall standard is applicable to companies in all industries using GS1 standards.
For more information, visit www.gs1.org or www.rapidrecallexchange.org.
