In all my years working in recalls – first in retail, now in recall software – I’ve seen one truth rise above the rest: recalls aren’t hard because we don’t have enough data. They’re hard because the data we have isn’t structured, shareable, or actionable.
Back when I was at Albertsons, recalls were a paper-driven blur. We’d get an alert, often by fax, and the rest was a mad dash: find the product, call the stores, pull it off the shelves, and hope no one missed a step. The cracks in the process weren’t from a lack of effort – they were from broken information. Lot codes didn’t match. Distribution lists were incomplete. Communication lagged behind the speed of the supply chain.
Later, when I started working with recall software, I realized just how central good data is to the success or failure of a recall. What was misdiagnosed as a people problem or a workflow issue turned into a data problem in disguise. The data – where the product went, who had it, how to reach them – was incomplete, hard to find, and difficult to use.
That’s what makes recalls so fragile. You can have the best team, the clearest intent, the most detailed product information – but if your data is sitting in incompatible formats, if it relies on spreadsheets or people remembering where to look, you’re starting from behind. Even a well-trained team can only move as fast as the information lets them.
I’ve come to believe that most recalls are ineffective not because companies don’t take them seriously, but because their data isn’t prepared to move. It’s locked in systems that don’t talk to each other. It’s scattered across departments. It’s shared in formats that require interpretation or re-entry. All of this takes time you don’t have in the middle of a recall.
The companies that manage recalls well are the ones that understand that recall readiness is about more than a plan. It’s about having data that can be used to drive action. When product codes align, when contact details are current, when every system in the chain can understand and act on the same information – that’s when a recall becomes manageable. That’s when speed is possible, action is scalable and risk goes down.
We don’t need more data. We need better data. Structured so systems can use it. Shareable so partners can act on it. Trusted so teams don’t second-guess it.
That’s what I’ve learned over years of sitting with this problem – from the trade side, from the tech side, and from watching the same challenges repeat themselves across the industry. We all agree that public health matters. We all want to do the right thing when a product needs to come off the shelf. Clear, connected data is what makes action possible.
Once you see it that way, you start to approach everything differently. You stop asking only what product needs to be recalled, and start asking how that recall will actually happen. You start looking at the systems behind the scenes, and the data that holds them together or causes them to fall apart.
That’s the shift I’ve made, and it’s the shift I think our industry has to make too. Until we fix the data, we’re leaving risk on the table. Bad data creates confusion, delays action, and puts people at risk. Once the data is right, everything else starts to work like it should.
