Guidelines and routines for tracking, recall and withdrawal
In its framework, STAND has defined guidelines, recommendations and best practices for how products should be marketed in the distribution chain, and how information on this should be exchanged between the parties.
Central to this is the consideration of the consumer and his expectation for safe food.
The guidelines for tracking, recall and withdrawal do not define food quality requirements, but describe what procedures and processes the industry has established to mitigate any unwanted effects should an incident or crisis occur in a product.
Best practices
The guidelines describe best practices in this area.
By following STAND’s framework, the guidelines will be achievable for all parties involved.
Some important prerequisites for best practice.
- Routines and processes must be simple, predictable and intuitive
- Products and deliveries / load carriers must be labeled in a unified, standardized and correct way so that they can be traced through the value chain.
- Product information must be registered in the Tradesolution EPD
- Detailed tracking information must be exchanged digitally between the parties and follow the products through the value chain.
- Action must be taken quickly when an incident or crisis occurs
By ensuring that a total industry complies with STAND’s framework, consumers’ demands and expectations for safe food are fully met.
Objective of the guidelines
The guidelines are aimed at “Contribute to meet consumers’ expectations for safe products”.
Target Audience:
- Anyone who may or will be involved in any recall or withdrawal
- Everyone involved in the production or labeling of products and packaging covered by the guidelines
Products / areas to which the guidelines apply:
- Recommended for food and non-food products, except pharmaceuticals
- Other inputs, plants, animals or foodstuffs
- Materials and articles that are intended to come into contact with, or may affect, inputs or foodstuffs.
Medicines are exempt from the guidelines. Here we refer to separate regulations, not described here.
Certain types of food may be subject to additional regulatory requirements beyond what is described here. An example is the EU’s new tobacco directive (EU 2014/40) which make the requirements for traceability of tobacco products more stringent, but is not described here.
