The release of the new ISO standards for Consumer Product Safety (ISO 10377) and Consumer Product Recall (ISO 10393) has been greeted with enthusiasm from the grocery sector.
These two new ISO standards, developed in parallel and with the contribution of GS1 and RQA Product Risk Institute, provide practical guidance to suppliers of consumer products in assessing and managing the safety of the consumer products they supply from the design of the product to the final product end-user as well as consumer product recalls and other corrective actions after the product has left the manufacturing facility.
ISO 10377 and ISO 10393 will foster improved consumer safety and seamlessly interoperate with GS1 standards in many areas including the requirements for globally unique product identification, supply chain traceability and multi-jurisdictional product recall.
Steve Hather, managing director of RQA Product Risk Institute and leading member of the international working group that developed the ISO 10393 standard said: “The new standard places a strong emphasis on understanding risk, good communication and being able to monitor the effectiveness of the recall through a variety of measures.”
“The difference between an effective product recall and a crisis that can cost millions of dollars and threaten the survival of a consumer goods company comes down to four key elements – investigation, assessment, strategy and communication. Get these elements right and the chances of a recall escalating into a crisis are very much reduced. The new standard places a heavy emphasis on these areas and is why we have created training courses that focus on these key elements,” Mr Hather said.
GS1 Australia and RQA Product Risk Institute will soon host a series of web-based presentations on how these new standards will benefit businesses by improving consumer product safety and the management of product recall events.
Maria Palazzolo, GS1 Australia’s CEO said increasing demands from consumers for improved product safety required both an effective product recall management process and product identification and traceability systems both up and down the supply chain.
In August 2011, GS1 Australia launched GS1 Recallnet, an online portal designed to enable food and grocery companies to create, approve and issue recall and withdrawal notifications to trading partners and government agencies efficiently and securely.
Developed in collaboration with Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), the Australian Food and Grocery Council, ACCC, national retailers and a number of Australian and international food and grocery manufacturers, GS1 Recallnet has assisted almost 200 Australian food and grocery companies with the development and implementation of their product recall and withdrawal management process.
“GS1 Recallnet is based on global GS1 standards, allowing for the seamless integration with companies existing supply chain processes and also for interoperability with other compliant recall portals,” said Ms Palazzolo.
GS1 Australia remains committed to working with industry and government to ensure consumer safety across all touch points of the supply chain. “GS1 Australia is working with two industry reference groups to extend the reach of GS1 Recallnet across all consumer goods in Australia as well as support the therapeutic goods recall process,” said Ms Palazzolo. (87)