Mitigating Food & Employee Risk Through Automation

Food recalls can result in brand damage, loss of sales, and direct costs. The average direct cost for a food recall is $10 million. 

On October 19th, 2016, HART presented a session in mitigating food and employee risk by using automation for the Georgia Association for Food Protection held at the Kroger Company – Atlanta Division. A few noteworthy attendees included Kroger Foods, Mondelez, and the University of Georgia.

The session was geared around reducing human contact with products in order to prevent food borne contamination and illness. Several examples of recent food recalls were discussed along with their causes and what the related costs of those recalls were. Those recent examples included Blue Bell and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream.

Below are a few key takeaways discussed during this session:

Consumer behavior after a recall can have a significant impact on a brand. Fifty-five percent of consumers switch brands at least temporarily after a recall, 15% say they will never purchase that product or brand again, and 21% say they avoid any brand associated with the manufacture.

We can control food recalls by practicing diligent cleaning, integrating proactive sanitation methods, and limiting human contact during the manufacturing in order to control spreading.

What makes automation successful? Knowledgeable companies that are familiar with raw product handling, knowledge of USDA regulations and restrictions, and knowledge of customer expectations. What makes it unsuccessful? Unrealistic expectations, unrealistic guarantees, wrong integration, and lack of industry knowledge.