The recent ByHeart infant formula recall showed what can happen if a supply chain doesn’t handle a recall well. The widespread recall was initiated by the formula manufacturer after botulism was detected, which likely originated from ByHeart’s organic whole milk powder supplier. Breakdowns across the supply chain resulted in major issues that complicated the recall.
First, retailers continued to stock and sell the contaminated formula after the recall was issued, prolonging public health risk. Poor and delayed communication caused confusion across the supply chain about which specific lots had been recalled, and what to do next. In some cases, retailers weren’t aware of the recall at all.
Secondly, ByHeart’s formula contamination may have begun years before the manufacturer issued the recall. This led to questions about the company’s safety and quality processes—as well as the effectiveness of the nation’s food inspection and regulatory systems overall. As a result, ByHeart had to expand the recall scope, leading to increased disruption, expense, and brand scrutiny.
The results were devastating, not just for the families experiencing health crises, but also for the companies caught in the fallout. Moments like these often prompt talk about “resilience,” a word that gets used frequently to describe standing firm in the face of unexpected hardship.
But in food safety, resilience cannot mean simply enduring a crisis you weren’t prepared for. True resilience is deliberate, built through planning, coordination, and investment long before an incident occurs.
Only As Strong as Your Weakest Link
As the ByHeart recall demonstrated, supply chains are only as strong as their weakest link. A manufacturer may have excellent safety protocols in place, but if their supply chain partners aren’t aligned—and aren’t part of the solution—their brand and customers remain at risk.
In other words, companies can’t be entirely resilient on their own. If you’ve issued a recall, but your retailers are still selling your recalled product, it prolongs public health risk and continues to harm brand reputation. Businesses have to think about recalls as supply chain activities instead of individual company activities, working collaboratively with trading partners to build resilience.
Resiliency Reduces Disruption & Risk
While prevention is important, eliminating every issue that could cause a recall is impossible to achieve and impractical to expect. Companies must work with their supply chain partners to become better prepared, more collaborative, and more resilient. Resilient supply chains allow companies to anticipate and mitigate risk, identify and contain issues quickly, communicate clearly, drive proper actions, and minimize damage.
Resilient supply chains are able to:
- Reduce risk exposure, damage, disruption, and costs when recalls occur.
- Minimize brand impact and reputational damage.
- Maintain strong trading partner relationships.
- Boost consumer confidence and trust through proper recall response.
- Ensure compliance with evolving regulations.
- Continually improve from each incident.
Resilience: Built on Preparation
Resilience is the result of deliberate preparation—building systems, aligning partners, and practicing responses before a recall occurs. True resilience assumes disruption will happen and prepares the supply chain to respond with clarity, cooperation, and control when it does.
Resilient supply chains work together, replacing siloed systems and fragmented workflows with connected data, open communication, shared systems, and coordinated action. Preparation and collaboration allow the entire supply chain to work well together, with faster responses and less damage, disruption, and expense.
Resilient supply chains:
- Share data and systems – Accurate information empowers better decision-making, data sharing, and response. Interoperability enables fast, accurate data flow and info-sharing.
- Prepare for disruption – Even the most safety-focused companies can be involved in a recall, whether it originates from their organization or from elsewhere in the supply chain. Plan and practice for these situations in advance, working collaboratively with trading partners.
- Improve visibility and traceability – When trading partners have access to accurate, real-time data on product movement, recalls move faster, scope is defined more precisely, accuracy improves, and overall execution becomes more efficient.
- Communicate clearly and quickly – Predefined protocols, connected data, shared systems, and customized templates help trading partners communicate quickly and accurately. Quick, clear, actionable messaging helps key stakeholders understand what happened and what to do next.
- Collaborate – View recalls as supply chain activities, not individual company activities. Invest in systems that work together across functions—testing, traceability, recall execution—rather than operating in silos.
- Proactive – Focus on being proactive, not reactive, working to improve safety and quality, mitigate risks, and address issues before they become widespread problems.
The Value of Resilience is Clear
Assume that disruptions will continue to occur. Proactively work to prevent, contain, and resolve them. Prioritize continuous risk monitoring activities, using modern tech solutions to flag potential safety risks early. Connect your systems, processes, and data to boost visibility and facilitate better, faster info-sharing. Have a comprehensive plan in place to protect your customers, company, and consumers when recalls occur.
Perhaps most importantly, practice the plan with trading partners to make sure your teams are prepared and identify any knowledge gaps.
Creating a resilient supply chain helps reduce the disruption, damage, risks, and costs associated with recalls. Resilient supply chains are better able to identify and contain contaminated products, disseminate clear information and instructions, and protect public health, brand reputation, and consumer trust.
After seeing the fallout from ByHeart’s poorly managed recall, it’s easy to see the benefits of resilience. Now is the time to build resilience together across your supply chain, for the sake of your company and your consumers.
Roger Hancock is the CEO of Recall InfoLink.
