---
id: KB-AL-016
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/food-and-beverage/withdrawing-a-product-from-the-market
idioma: en
categoria: sector-alimentacion
subcategoria: distribucion
audiencia: usuario
nivel: avanzado
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-AL-013, KB-GL-020]
citadoPor: [KB-CS-007]
---

# Withdrawing a product from the market

_A recall is not improvised at nine on a Friday night. It is rehearsed beforehand — and what you rehearse is finding the paperwork._

**Responde a:** how to run a product withdrawal · food recall mock exercise · i have to withdraw a batch what now · product recall steps

A customer calls and says something is not right. Or your supplier warns that an ingredient they shipped you has a problem. From that minute on, everything you decide hangs on one thing: **how fast you can say where each batch went**. And that is not decided that night; it was decided the day you set up your records.

**Withdrawal and recall** — Withdrawing is taking the product out of the chain before it reaches the consumer. Recalling is going after it once it has. The worse your answer to «where is it?», the closer you are to the second.

## The clock, hour by hour

| Moment | What you must be able to say | Where it comes from |
| --- | --- | --- |
| First hour | Which batch it is and what is in it | The production record |
| First hours | How much was made and how much is still here | The warehouse |
| Same day | Who it was shipped to and in what quantity | The delivery notes |
| Right away | What else was made with the same ingredient or line | The link between batches |
| Afterwards | What was done and why, with timestamps | The file you are creating right now |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The row that sinks most companies is the fourth: **scope**. With poor records, the only honest answer is «we withdraw everything from that month», and that multiplies the cost twentyfold. With records linking the ingredient batch to product batches and those to customers, the withdrawal is contained to what is genuinely affected. It is literally the difference between a bad afternoon and a bad quarter — and it is decided months earlier, in how batches get recorded.

## The mock exercise, the only thing that proves it works

1. **Pick a random batch from a few months back** — Random and old. Yesterday's is remembered by everyone and proves nothing.
2. **Reconstruct backwards: what it was made from** — Ingredients, suppliers and their batches.
3. **And forwards: where it went** — Customers, quantities and dispatch dates.
4. **Time it and note where you got stuck** — The sticking point is the finding; the total time is only the headline.

> [!WARNING]
> What most often breaks a mock exercise is not traceability: **it is that the information lives in different places and different formats**. Production in a spreadsheet, delivery notes in the ERP, the supplier's email in the inbox of someone who is off today. Every hop between systems is half an hour, and in a real withdrawal those half hours are product still moving towards the consumer. So the goal is not «having the data», it is having it **in one place and within reach of more than one person**.

## What to write down while it is happening

**En corto**

- Who decided to withdraw, at what time, and with what information on the table.
- Who was notified, when and through which channel — including those who never replied.
- What came back, what was destroyed and under which document.
- And what was changed afterwards so it does not recur, which is the first thing they ask.

> [!NOTE]
> When you are required to inform the authorities, within what deadline and by what route, and how withdrawal differs from recall in your specific case, is determined by the applicable food rules. **Your quality manager or adviser settles that, and it is worth having written down BEFOREHAND**; here we explain how to reach that call with the answers already prepared.

**How often should we run a mock exercise?**

At least yearly, and whenever a system or a major supplier changes.

**What if the problem comes from my supplier?**

The alert is theirs, but withdrawing YOUR product is yours. Start with scope.

**Do we notify even if nothing reached anyone?**

That depends on the case and is not decided in the heat of it: have it checked in advance.

## Ejemplos

**A supplier flags a problem with an ingredient and you do not know which products used it.**

- Links the ingredient batch to product batches in the production record

→ Scope is contained to the affected batches instead of withdrawing a month's output.

**The annual mock exercise stalls because delivery notes are in the ERP and production is in a spreadsheet.**

- Brings both records into the same batch file
- Times it and notes where it stalled

→ The next exercise drops from hours to minutes as the hops between systems disappear.

**Once the withdrawal is over, you are asked to explain what was done and who was told.**

- Records decisions, notifications and replies with timestamps as it happens

→ The file is handed over complete, with nothing reconstructed from memory.

**You must decide who to warn and there is no record of what went out.**

- Records which batch went to which customer

→ Those affected are warned rather than the whole base.

**The recall is only rehearsed when it actually happens.**

- Tries once to locate a random batch

→ The real response time is known beforehand.

**The documents needed sit in four places.**

- Gathers them in the batch's file

→ The decision is taken with everything in view.