Information on recalled food slow to reach schools "Schools were not told promptly about recalls of tainted peanut butter and other foods and may have unwittingly served it to students, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The report said that it took up to a week for states to find out which products had been recalled." [Consumer Reports Safety]
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With almost instantaneous communication, can't each school send an e-mail address to the government agencies with whom they deal and get information as soon as it's available? I don't understand why it would take a week when all it takes is a click of a mouse to notify an entire database.
@H3ion: Here is why.
In cases like this, you have 2 options, recieve all emails regarding food recalls, or only recieve emails about food you purchased.
In the second option, the database would need to include all products purchased, where it was purchased from, and when. That would then need to be crosschecked against the recall list, and a message be sent. Then a person on the recieving end of that email would need to verify the data, and work through whatever channels needed to properly dispose of the goods, and allocate funds to replace them.
In the first option, somone on the school end would need to read every one of those emails and detemine if they bought any of the goods. After the first 2-3 dozen of those emails, they will get ignored (trust me)
At my school, stuff to make lunch was delivered the day before it was prepared (or day of depending on the item) this means all this info would need to then be relayed to a distrbutor, and changes would need to be made on the fly. All that takes time and money, both of which schools have little of.
The problem is that there is no good track-and-trace in the food supply chain. Manufacturers can't easily tell where their products have gone. If you know that a particular lot is bad, you have to go to the distributor to trace the stuff. Finding out what products are bad is tough the other way, too. You've got a bottle of salsa, say. How can you tell what field the tomatoes came from?
Information on recalls is readily available. Schools (or restaurants, convenience stores or consumers for that matter) should not wait until a winged messenger shows up on their doorstep to tell them products are under recall. The most serious recalls (what FDA terms as a 'class 1') are publicized with press releases.
The information is public -- if it doesn't get picked up in the news, there's a whole web site devoted just to recalls: recalls.gov.
There comes a time when people have to take some responsibility for these things.
@dohtem: Depending on the severity of the recall and how far down the distribution chain they are, schools should ideally hear from the firm they purchased the products from. However that does not always happen. As I explained down thread - for their own safety schools (and other institutions) should periodically check for recall press releases to make sure they aren't missing something.
@Con Seannery: Recalls are almost always NOT conducted by government agencies. Publicity, transport, storage and destruction relevant to recalls are handled by the recalling firm. If you look at the press releases -- especially for FDA recalls -- you will see the term 'voluntary' in there somewhere. Therefore it is the recalling firm's responsibility to get the word out. The government agency will monitor the recall and provide guidance but is not the entity in charge of it.
I'm a little lost here... how does the process work? Is the onus on the schools to keep track of its food sources and monitor recalls? Or do they just wait till the government tells them what to throw out? Or is it the suppliers' responsibility to let the schools know?