Automation Will Improve Your Restaurant’s Recall Management

Restaurants – and their trading partners – can be impacted by recalls at any time, even if they adhere to the strictest food safety protocols. If your restaurant or suppliers are involved in a recall, there’s a lot to manage. The top priority, of course, is to mitigate risks and prioritize public health. It’s also critical to get complete, accurate information from your suppliers, share accurate information across your organization, communicate about the incident to consumers and other key stakeholders, and remove all contaminated products from your restaurant and supply chain. Does your organization have the proper systems and tools in place to handle all of these tasks quickly, accurately, and seamlessly?

Many restaurants still rely on manual or disjointed systems, which makes recall management slow, error-prone, and ineffective. Outdated tools and systems can actually hinder recall efforts and cause delays. Instead, rely on modern, integrated tech solutions to automate your process and provide better visibility, transparency, and info-sharing during a recall.

Pivot from Manual Systems to Automation

Recently, cucumbers, sausage, baked goods, pork, and other foods were recalled. Do you know if any of these contaminated products were delivered to your restaurant? How are you tracking the products you receive? Are you and your trading partners using integrated systems that boost transparency, so you can pinpoint exactly where potentially contaminated products have travelled?

If your restaurant is not yet using automation, it’s time to start! During a recall, restaurant employees can’t lose valuable time searching through paper files, manually calling suppliers, or trying to pinpoint products’ supply chain routes using an old Excel spreadsheet. These manual efforts are slow, ineffective, error-prone, and high-risk. Since a recall could happen at any time, your restaurant must be prepared, so move away from manual systems and adopt modern, automated recall software instead.

The  Benefits of Automation

The benefits of automation for recall management cannot be overstated, as it improves: 

Speed. Using manual methods to gather product data, share information with trading partners, and locate impacted products is inefficient and high-risk. It’s much faster and more accurate to automate these efforts. For instance, use standardized workflows to guide employees through the recall management process, ensuring that they follow the proper sequence and don’t miss any critical steps. Automation also amplifies communication, allowing restaurants to notify affected stores or consumers about the incident in minutes. Real-time dashboards help track response progress, provide key event insights, and accelerate resolution. Overall, automating the recall process can cut recall times in half (or more), resulting in labor and operational cost savings up to 90%.

Collaboration. During a recall, restaurants must work closely with their supply chain partners. When trading partners use different systems, processes, and data, it hinders recall speed, efficiency, and accuracy. Instead, rely on integrated, automated technology so trading partners can identify, collect, and share information for a single source of truth.

Visibility. Do you know if the cucumbers you recently received were part of the latest recall? Automation enables more accurate product tracking across the supply chain so you can accurately determine whether your supply could have been contaminated. With better visibility, food businesses can pinpoint the contamination source, determine where contaminated products traveled, and ensure proper removal for faster, more complete recalls.

Communication. Even if the food safety breach didn’t originate at your restaurant, communicating with your guests about their safety can build trust and maintain your brand reputation. In collaboration with your trading partners, explain what happened and what happens next. Be transparent about the issue, focusing on the facts and reiterating your commitment to food safety and protecting public health. Leveraging automated tech solutions, especially mobile-first platforms, to enable consumer-direct information is an effective way of driving action and protecting the public that should be more widely adopted.

Customer trust and loyalty. Issuing a recall doesn’t necessarily erode customer trust and loyalty – it’s how your restaurant handles the recall that matters. Consumers expect to see you act quickly to remove contaminated products, communicate honestly about the issue, and reiterate your ongoing commitment to food safety. If you take ownership, communicate transparently, and demonstrate that protecting public health is your #1 concern, it can help minimize the recall’s financial, legal, and reputational fallout.

Compliance. All recall activities must be properly documented, which is difficult, time-consuming, and error-prone when using manual methods. Paper records can be easily damaged or misplaced, and Excel spreadsheets often have errors and issues with version control. Instead, use automation to improve record-keeping and streamline report generation, making it easy to provide regulators with accurate, updated compliance information.

How to Incorporate Automation in Your Restaurant

When issuing a recall, automation helps you take quick action, improve collaboration, and elevate communication. To incorporate automation into your restaurant:

• Audit your current recall process and identify where manual tasks create bottlenecks.
• Choose platforms built for recall execution to boost speed, accuracy, and efficiency.
•  Leverage modern tech tools with integrated contact databases, real-time dashboards, audit-ready reporting, and interoperability with your trading partners.
•  Train your team on these tech tools before you need them, so they’re onboarded before a stressful, hectic recall situation.

Automating the recall process is one of the smartest things you can do to prepare for an incident. Since automation improves all aspects of recall management, incorporating these solutions will dramatically boost visibility, communication, speed, accuracy, collaboration, and consistency. Using modern tech tools allow you to elevate your recall management efforts, mitigate risks, and keep your customers safer.