Vince Shiers 
The UK Government’s Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) recently published a report on AI and product safety. This is an in-depth report worthy of a full read. We have extracted some high level points from the report, go to the end for a link to download the full report. Opportunities and benefits The … Read more
Crisis Communications plans are often drafted and then filed, gathering dust until they are suddenly needed when crisis strikes. But will they be any use at that time? Click below to read our latest article, written by our highly experienced crisis communications consultant. If you would like further information on our crisis communication services click … Read more
The proposed FSMA rule was described as a “game changer for the safety of fresh produce” at the recent Food Safety Summit in Chicago by Frank Yiannas (Deputy Commissioner, Food Policy and Response, U.S. FDA). This rule would change the pre-harvest agricultural water requirements for covered produce (other than sprouts). The requirements in this proposed … Read more
The EU Safety Gate (formerly RAPEX) is the European consumer product safety rapid alert system and they have published their 2021 report. This Rapid Alert System (RAS) ensures that information about dangerous non-food products withdrawn from the market and/or recalled anywhere in Europe is quickly circulated between Member States and the European Commission. In total … Read more
Our highlights and key trends from the Q1 2022 Recall Data We are leading experts in product recall with 25 years of experience and have assisted in well over 1500 real-life product incidents. We have taken all of this knowledge and expertise and used it to put together a concise summary of the latest recall … Read more
Click here to download and read this article as a PDF, or read on below Recurring food safety failures and product recalls in the pet food sector emphasise the importance of maintaining effective integrity systems including HACCP and VACCP. This is the same as in the human food sector and these systems help to protect against … Read more
In 2019 we applied the Never Events principle from the health care industry to food product recalls. Essentially, we identified a significant proportion of product recalls that should never happen. For example, where the product had been put in the wrong packaging or the incorrect label had been applied. These are cases where product recalls … Read more
RQA Group continually tracks recall numbers globally throughout the year with a specific focus on USDA, US FDA, UK FSA, RASFF and Product Safety Australia. Below we have summarised the recall numbers for 2021 and made predictions for 2022: USDA FSIS recalls (Class I, II or III) were higher in 2021 than in 2020 but … Read more
RQA are searching for an ambitious person who is looking to get a first step into sales and marketing or further their development in this area. This is a part-time role, working 20hrs per week. The role is a vital one for our expansion and supports, and enables, the marketing team to generate leads and … Read more
The UK FSA report on 13 foodborne pathogens and their detrimental effect on UK society has ben published. They classified the pathogens according to 6 weighted criteria: Estimated Number of Annual Cases Quality Adjusted Life Years per Case of the Pathogen Public Concern Total Cost to Society per Annum Estimated Number of Annual Fatalities Scientist … Read more