Recalls of consumer products and, in particular, food, continued
to grow in number and severity in 2008. The safety of food and
consumer products has taken on greater prominence in the media and
in legislative policy in both Canada and the United States. The
coming into force of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement
Act in the United States and new regulatory initiatives in
Canada herald an era of increasing public and regulatory scrutiny
of food and consumer product safety.
Although all companies hope never to have to call upon corporate
recall and crisis management strategies, such strategies are, in
2009, clearly necessary. Companies that fail to plan for an
emergency will find themselves ill-equipped to cope with a crisis
in the event one occurs. In the new economy, the impact of such a
failure could be devastating to a company. Although strengthening
or expanding product standards and compliance and crisis management
protocols may result in increased costs,
