Communicating food recalls to consumers

I dashed out this afternoon to pick up a few groceries, and found myself wandering the aisles because I could not find a product that I buy regularly: PC Brand Organics Quinoa. (Readers in certain parts of Canada know the President’s Choice or PC brand well. For the rest of you, it’s a very popular in-house brand sold by several retailers within a chain.)

I found a clerk who had no idea what quinoa was, but who was willing to find out where it was now located in the store. The good news: She quickly found the answer. The bad news: The product had been recalled. There was a sign on the shelf, but it was oriented toward store clerks, not customers. It said: “Recall. Do not restock,” with the product name in tiny letters.

Back home, I phoned Loblaw’s and got through to the customer service department right away (kudos to Loblaw’s for not putting me on hold). A cheery woman named Jennifer investigated the matter and let me know that sand had been found in the product, hence the recall. The box I already had at home was included in the recall, according to the bar code.

I asked: How would I as a customer find out about a recall like this? Other than happening to see a sign in the store, how would I know? In this case, I missed the sign entirely on several forays down the aisle because not only had the product been recalled, but its regular shelf spot had been moved to a different aisle.

I shudder to think of people consuming sand – or worse – in recalled products.

Is there an email notification list that customers could sign up for? No. But Jennifer agreed it was a good idea.

Why not a mailing list to let me know of new products, recipes and so on, in addition to recalls?

Looks like a great opportunity for a grocery chain.

By the way, I checked online and found a website for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, but the quinoa product was not listed anywhere. I suspect the problem was not found by the feds. However, you can sign up for email or RSS or Twitter alerts on this site so that you can be notified of recalls.

Comments

[Barb Sawyers]

The feds probably weren't involved because no one got sick and Loblaws withdrew the product voluntarily. I agree I'd like to know about recalls, but the logistics are staggering and do not support their strategic objectives. LOL. We've been hearing about artificial intelligence and the grocery stores for decades, yet no results. Amazon has a better algorithm for the books I buy, though I spend way more on food. I'll bet they would email me if a book I'd purchased had been recalled.

[suz]

I have a boxs of PC Organiccs Quinoa how do i know if this boxs is a recall

[Donna Papacosta]

Call the customer service phone number on the box. They will ask for the bar code on the bottom of the box, and they will check their records. They will let you know if the box you have is among those recalled.