BCP, RORP, Food Recalls, Product Recalls & Simulations
A real-life, food recall event isn’t something any company wants to go through. But it does happen. If it does, the key is being prepared.
Prepared means having up-to-date, documented systems, good stock control systems, and having the strategy and team in place, ready to deploy if the situation arises.
What should I do to strengthen the systems I have?
Business Continuity Plans (BCP), Risk Organism Response Plans (RORP), Food (Product) Recalls or Product Withdrawals relate to how effective and responsive your Traceability systems are functioning. These plans are integral to any successful food-based business anywhere in the world.
But, can you place your hands on the last practical exercise you did with any of these 4 plans?
How did the plan perform in a real-life scenario?
And, what is the quality of the documentation resulting from the exercise?
These are key questions.
And these 4 activities are all different and perform different important functions – Let us help you to identify the differences below:
Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
A BCP is a document that details the complete plan a business will use in any critical event which will keep the business functioning if a major event occurs.
These major, disruptive events could be from a computer system failure, logistics or manufacturing outages, personnel shortages from a pandemic, or loss of bricks and mortar assets due to fire, flood, or another major event. *
Food Recalls and Product Recalls
Our consultants facilitate simulated recall exercises with your teams that encompass an end-to-end, practical food recall scenario. The exercise includes all stock and raw materials implicated in a food recall scenario and depicts real-life food recall events.
Risk Organism Response Plan (RORP)
A RORP is a recorded, verified plan and set of procedures that have been practiced by a designated team, ready to implement in the event of a significant biosecurity disease outbreak such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD).
A RORP is required by all organisations that collect, process or distribute raw milk. Your RORP must address the risks associated at each site and be evaluated by a Recognised Agency. *
Traceability Exercise
An exercise to trace a raw material, finished goods, packaging material, or any implicated item throughout its entire journey through the entire supply chain.
Having robust Traceability systems ensures your business can quickly identify and locate product. When things go wrong, as they sometimes can, effective traceability ensures your brand’s reputation remains trusted and intact by providing fast, accurate information to customers and the public.
* Exercises and simulations to test the BCP or RORP should be undertaken regularly. Regulatory bodies such as MPI and FSANZ require plans to be verified annually.
A Product Recall, Risk Organism Response Plan or Business Continuity Plan Response team is like a sports team. There needs to be practice. The team requires reserves (backup) members ready to take over if any of the starting team is unavailable. The best teams perform their best if they know the task as second nature.
Any good plan needs a good base and when we are talking about these four subjects your underlying procedures are key. These are all different topics and need to be treated so in their own right; we cannot stipulate this enough. While they can be linked, do not get them confused.
Once you have sound processes you need to practice, practice, practice. Common mistakes that can happen, but are not limited to are:
- Too few people hold all the knowledge
- Practice/Simulation scenarios being unrealistic, too benign, or not done frequently enough
- Exercises not undertaken seriously and/or not documented correctly
- Drills are performed with too much warning so that people can schedule them in
- Hard copies of key documents and procedures not being available if internet, computer, phone, or electrical tools are compromised.
