How do product recalls work

We hold companies responsible for their negligent actions. We can investigate your claim to determine if recovery may be possible, and if so, we can take your case through the claims process.

Call or fill out our online form to get started on your claim today. Below are the steps to get a product recalled.

A Consumer Complains Most product recalls begin when a consumer files a complaint — usually after he or she has been harmed by a product. United States Food and Drug Administration FDA — The FDA regulates food, medicine and other products used for the body, including medical devices, vaccines, cosmetics, pet food, tobacco products and prescription medications. United States Coast Guard — This agency is responsible for monitoring reports regarding boats and watercraft.

The Agency Investigates the Complaint The appropriate agency then begins an investigation into the issue. It uses a three-tier system to determine the seriousness of a complaint: Class I — The product has a reasonable likelihood of causing severe health risks or even death. The USDA also uses a three-tier approach to measure the seriousness of a consumer complaint: Class I — The food may harm or kill the consumer, as determined by a reasonable probability.

Class II — The food poses a health hazard, but there is a very low risk that the consumer will suffer negative consequences to his or her health.

The Fast-Track Program is another reason why it is advisable to have a recall plan prepared in advance and ready to execute should a recall become necessary. The term "corrective action plan" CAP generally includes any type of remedial action taken by a firm.

A CAP may include multiple measures that are necessary to protect consumers. Commission staff refers to corrective actions as "recalls" because the public and media recognize and respond more readily to that description. Please see the Recall Handbook for more information. This communication has been prepared for general informational purposes only and is based upon the facts and information presented.

This communication does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice and has not been reviewed or approved by the Commission, and does not necessarily represent their views. If a death or serious injury or illness has been associated with a product, you also need to lodge a mandatory report with the ACCC. As a supplier, you will be able to target your customers more directly if you know who they are and how they are accessing your products.

If you are unable to identify who your customers are or where the products you sold are most likely to be located, you will need to advertise more widely to ensure a successful recall. If a recall is not conducted successfully the first time around, suppliers may find that the process of revisiting a recall costly and time consuming. Braun, for instance, avoided a recall through comprehensive prelaunch product testing.

When Braun was developing the KF40 coffeemaker, it designed a new handle for the glass carafe that was glued on rather than attached by a metal band. However, design engineers were concerned about the ability of an adhesive to survive heat and extended use. Sure enough, despite successful testing of prototypes, the glued plastic handles became detached on a few of the carafes when used by potential customers during prelaunch tests.

Braun then redesigned the handle with a stylized hook over the top lip of the carafe to help keep the handle secure. Subsequent testing validated the new design. The product was launched in and became an instant and long-running success, selling Anticipation of the problem with the handle, additional careful testing, and the ensuing redesign averted a potentially costly and damaging situation.

The likelihood of recalls can be reduced if senior managers can ensure that product design and quality—especially when safety-related—are comprehensively addressed throughout and beyond the new-product development process. The product development team should be constantly reviewing the track records of older products.

Were there any recalls? Safety concerns? Was the product easy to repair? Such reviews help managers anticipate potential recall problems; they also help companies conduct more precise tests on new products. And, although testing products is standard practice, there is a good deal to be gained from taking the product-testing process a step or two beyond the lab, as Braun did. A variety of use-oriented product-testing procedures can help identify and resolve defects.

Home-use testing often can identify safety hazards or other quality problems that may arise through consumer use and misuse of products and that can be fixed prior to launch. Other major use-testing procedures are gamma and delta testing. When such a recall is made directly from customers, the company often offers new replacement products as an incentive.

In some industries, delta testing is not new. Airlines, for example, are required by law to inspect regularly and to repair their planes after a set number of miles flown. Automobile companies routinely buy back a few of their own cars and those of their competitors from used-car dealers and car rental companies so that they can conduct a complete inspection.

Even before a product reaches the testing stage, designers can be taking steps that will make a recall easier. Products that have built-in traceability typically, parts marked with individual serial numbers indicating the time and place of manufacture and modularity designs that facilitate replacement of components will, in a recall situation, help managers diagnose and solve the problem quickly and cost-effectively.

Once a recall is issued, the product development team should focus on finding the cause of the problem and the best solution. On occasion, that team may be too close to the problem to assess it effectively. If necessary, an outside expert should be consulted to expedite the process and provide an impartial analysis of the problem. The product development team should also work with the recall response team to determine an appropriate adjustment offer to compensate the customer.

More than any other group within the company, the product development team is aware of the effort and cost required to repair or replace the product in question. After a recall, the product development team should conduct additional studies of the product defect with an eye to identifying any glitches in the development process that contributed to the problem.

The team should study the science and technology behind the development process, reappraise its TQM process—especially the link between design and manufacturing—and identify additional opportunities for redesign such as improvements in modularity in anticipation of future problems.

Are customers satisfied with the new offering? Is it performing as expected? When possible, the product development team should conduct delta tests on the modified product. The communications function plays a central role in preparing an organization for recalls.

In fact, the effectiveness of communication during and after a recall depends on prior communication—internally and externally—particularly for companies with products and services that span global markets. In the Perrier example, although the company was prompt in ordering a recall, poor communication damaged its brand image. Explanations of the source of the benzene differed: Perrier in the United States reported that the contamination was limited to North America; Perrier in the United Kingdom said that it did not know what had happened; in France, the company announced that the origin of the benzene was a cleaning fluid mistakenly used on the North American bottling line and that the water source was unaffected.

Three days after that announcement, the company established that the problem was indeed located at the source; the contamination had been caused by a failure to replace charcoal filters that were used to screen out impurities. As part of recall preparation and to aid people in communications, the manager with overall responsibility for recalls should identify major recall stakeholders beyond immediate consumers.

These might include distributors, dealers or retailers, financial institutions, employees, service centers, sales forces, and regulatory agencies. Many companies already have crisis-management communications plans that can address a variety of crises, whether they be labor relations issues or regulatory or criminal investigations. Recalls should be included in those plans. For companies that are in the process of developing crisis-management communications plans, a recall scenario might provide a suitable prototype issue.

During a recall, the response team should keep customers properly informed and persuade them to complete the necessary exchanges. Team members also should decide on and release appropriate messages to the media. For example, they might decide to preempt their current advertising with specially designed recall advertising.

To carry out recall communications successfully, the recall response team should draw on the experience and expertise of people from public relations, advertising, and other sales and marketing resources.

The extent of that effort should be determined by the impact the recall has had on the stakeholders. We recommend, however, that as general practice, the communications members of the recall response team take at least some form of the following two actions.

In-house testing revealed within 48 hours that the unit was indeed faulty and could overheat and catch fire despite a device that was supposed to shut it off if it overheated.