Consumers and Recalls
New research from the USA by the Rutgers Food Policy Institute has shown that only about 60 per cent of the studied sample reported having looked for recalled food in their homes ever, and only 10 per cent said they had ever actually found a recalled food product in their home.
“Despite widespread awareness of recent foodborne illness outbreaks, and a sense that the number of food recalls is increasing, about half of Americans say that food recalls have had no impact on their lives,” said psychologist William K. Hallman, a professor of human ecology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.
The research also showed that about 75 percent of those who responded would like to have personalised recall information at the grocery stores and 60percent believe that they should receive this information directly through letters or email.
The study did find that once consumers know about a recall, they spread the word about it. The problem is that then they appear to not go and check whether any of the foods in their home are in fact the recalled products.
Professor Hallman said, “Getting consumers to pay attention to news about recalls isn’t the hard part but getting them to take the step of actually looking for recalled food products in their homes is a real challenge.” He also said that making the recall messages personalised may help address the sense by some consumers that the Recall Notices out there are not for them but only affect others. Making the message personalised should make it harder for people to ignore the importance of the recall and the need to do something about the message.
The study highlighted a frightening statistic – about 12 percent of those involved in the survey reported eating food they thought had been recalled. This shows that when food businesses send recall messages to the consumers, they need to be clear and provide distinct and easy instructions on what to do with the food. Instructions such as “throw out all product that has this batch code / use by date” or “Seal product and immediately return to where you purchased it”, are clear and easy for consumers to understand. Asking consumers “to hold the product and not throw away” may be seen as being confusing – is the product OK or isn’t it?
In Australia, all those businesses that manufacture, distribute, import or wholesale food products must have a Product Recall Program that meets the requirements of the Recall Protocol, which can be found at www.foodstandards.gov.au
Even though it was done in the USA, this study shows that food businesses need to be careful about how we communicate our recalls, so that consumers are aware of the importance of the recall and what they should do about it.