Gather information about the incident and trace your suppliers and business customers , so you know what food or feed has been affected and what the risks are to consumers. Then you must: immediately withdraw the food or feed from the supply chain issue a recall if the product has reached consumers or animals tell your local authority’s food safety team or port health authority tell the Food Standards Agency (FSA) about the incident if your business has been approved by the FSA veterinary team tell your local authority or the FSA if the product has been distributed outside of the UK take action to prevent future incidents If you do not deal with an incident, your business could be stopped from producing food or feed. You could be fined or in serious cases prosecuted. Your local authority will inform the FSA incidents team. You can also tell the FSA yourself if the food or feed has already reached consumers or animals. This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg) . Withdrawals You must withdraw unsafe, mislabelled or non-compliant food or feed from the supply chain. Do this immediately, before it reaches consumers or animals. You must tell any other businesses you have sold the food or feed to about the incident. Tell them: exactly which product and batch is affected why it has been withdrawn what they should do next, for example return or safely dispose of the product Recalls If the food or feed has already reached consumers or animal owners, you need to recall the product. You must contact consumers. Share accurate information about: the product details, such as the name, size, best before or use by dates and batch code an image of the product the reason for the recall what they should do if they bought the product, including whether it can be eaten, if they should return it and whether they can get a refund how to safely dispose of the product - speak to your local authority about this where to get more information You must communicate with consumers effectively. You could use posters in your store, your website, social media or marketing communications. You could also contact specific consumer, patient or allergy organisations. If you have sold the product to another business, tell them to contact their customers about the recall. Use these template documents to help you carry out a recall. What to do with unsafe food and feed When you have unsafe, mislabelled or non-compliant food or feed, you should: store unsafe food away from non-affected food label it clearly have a plan for what you will do with unsafe food that is returned to you safely dispose of the food - speak to your local authority and follow relevant waste disposal laws, including those for animal products document what you do with the food, including how you safely dispose of it You might be able to make the food or feed safe, for example by re-labelling a food so it states it contains an allergen. You must get permission from your local authority’s food safety team or port health authority before you do this.

After dealing with the immediate incident you must work out how and why the incident happened and how to prevent future incidents. You can carry out a root cause analysis to do this. Get information from the Food Standard Agency’s (FSA’s) root cause analysis online course and their root cause analysis resources . You can also ask your local authority for advice. This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg) . You can also prevent incidents by: having a food safety system following food hygiene best practice ensuring food is labelled correctly

Report the incident to the FSA

Your local authority will usually contact the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on your behalf. You should contact the FSA as soon as possible yourself if: the food or feed has been distributed outside of the UK the incident is serious and the product has reached customers This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg) . What to tell the FSA Include the following information in your report: the name of your business the business’ full postal address and post code when you identified the incident a brief description of the investigation to date - include product details, quantities affected, any hazards identified and the impact on consumers or animals a summary of the action you’ve taken and plan to take details of any specific advice you need from the FSA contact details where you can be reached at any time, including outside of normal business hours If the product has been imported or exported outside of the UK, you must also include distribution or traceability information. If available, also include: distribution and traceability information relevant photographs copies of any test certificates the result of any root cause analysis on how you will prevent future incidents Contact details Email your report to the relevant team for your nation. Food Standards Agency - England only Telephone: 020 7276 8448 Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm Local authorities and food businesses can always leave a message FSA.Incidents@food.gov.uk Food Standards Agency - Wales only FSA.IncidentsWales@food.gov.uk Food Standards Agency - Northern Ireland only FSA.IncidentsNI@food.gov.uk

Food or feed incidents: recalls and withdrawals

Overview

A food or feed incident is when you know, or suspect, that food or feed your business has produced or distributed has one or more of the following problems:

it’s harmful to health
it’s not safe to eat
it does not meet legal requirements
the product label or ingredients list is incorrect or misleading
it contains allergens or other potentially dangerous ingredients that are not mentioned on the product label

You must take action and report any food or feed incidents.

This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg).

Reporting an incident in Scotland

There is a different way to report a food or feed incident in Scotland.

If you want to report someone else’s business

Contact your local authority’s food safety team if you believe there’s been a food or feed incident in a business you do not own.

Food incident news and alerts

Find out about the latest food or feed incidents and product recalls. You can sign up for alerts.

View a printable version of the whole guide

Food or feed incidents: recalls and withdrawals

Overview

Reporting an incident in Scotland

If you want to report someone else’s business

Food incident news and alerts

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Food or feed incidents: recalls and withdrawals

Overview

Reporting an incident in Scotland

If you want to report someone else’s business

Food incident news and alerts

Is this page useful?

Help us improve GOV.UK

Help us improve GOV.UK