While there are many tools available to help food and beverage companies manage their supply chain, the integration of electronic systems in ensuring effective connectivity can be a challenge. During a Food Safety Tech conference, a panel of industry experts shared their perspectives on how to use tools to manage and communicate recalls, and the importance of focusing on a food safety management system. Melanie Neumann, executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Acheson Group, cited recall communication programs such as Rapid Recall Exchange and Recall Info Link. “They’re great programs in that they The 2015 Food Safety Consortium Conference (November 17-20, 2015 in Schaumburg, IL) features topics on supply chain risk and vulnerabilities. Register now. communicate outbound, downstream to the recipients of recalled products. It gets [product] out of the hands of potential consumer purchasers and consumer consumption,” said Neumann. “Here’s what it doesn’t do: They have no way of knowing whether or not they’re communicating out all of the affected product. It still comes back to industry’s responsibility in effective supply chain management to know you’ve captured all of the affected recalled product that those systems are then used to communicate outbound.”