“We always tell people, if they don’t have a manual capability—if they can’t actually follow procedures manually—they’ll always have problems,” Glynn says. “They have to already have a structure and layout in place that supports lot tracking and recall.”

For instance, one GlobalBake customer continually replenished the salt supply at a mixing station by simply pouring in more salt when the supply ran low. This, of course, offered no way to track salt supplies to individual lots, Glynn says.

At some wholesale bakeries, early-morning employees punch the clock at two a.m. and grab the ingredients they need to get started–without recording what they use.

Glynn calls these types of mistakes–often done in good faith but with no thought to tracking–business organizational problems.

“These are the types of things you have to have all sorted out before you bring in automation,” Glynn says. “You need to think about all the angles when you think about lot recall, and that requires organization. Bakers have to have control over their stock. People can’t be wandering in and grabbing stuff and chucking it into the mixer. That sort of thing has to be worked out in advance because bakers will have to have a record every step of the way.”

When excellent business procedures are in place, employees are already disciplined in manual recording.

“Then the scanning process certifies it and makes it less prone to error than manual entry,” Glynn says.

Mock Recall

So you have an ERP system in place that allows for traceabiliy.

Do you want proof that your ERP system will trace ingredients back to supplier level in some set amount of time; say two hours? Consider running a mock recall to prove just such a capability, says Payne, of CDC Software.

A mock recall is just as the name implies—an executive designates a “contaminated” ingredient lot, by number, and employees demonstrate their prowess—and the ERP system’s prowess—by showing they can recall contaminated products, from retailers and from the production plant, within that set period of time.

Mock recalls can even help bakers win new customers, Payne says.

“It shows customers you have capability to contain the recall; a lot of our customers see that as a strategic selling advantage in that they can do something their competitors can’t do,” Payne says. “If they’re selling their own brands, they’re getting brand protection.”

And sometimes a potential customer will demand the wholesale bakers show it can quickly recall products. When wholesale bakers produce products for a third-party, the need to prove recall speed is particularly high, Payne says. It may mean the difference between winning the contract and getting passed over.

“We have a number of bakery customers doing contract manufacturing and private labeling manufacturing and those manufacturers wants to know the brand is protected,” he says. “If I’m making a product for Acme Co. and I have to recall everything, that’s a huge cost. And then are people going to buy that product in the future?”

While it’s not a baker, Payne points to CDC customer Berner Foods Inc., Roscoe, Ill., to demonstrate how mock-recall capability can boost business.

Retailers looking to stock food manufacturer Berner Foods Inc. line of meats and cheeses often ask the food maker to demonstrate how nimbly it could respond to a food recall.

When bidding for business, the food manufacturer can show potential supermarket and big-box retail customers it can trace the individual ingredients in each of its products to supplier level within two hours, Payne says.

During these tests, Berner Foods (which has never actually faced a recall) routinely shows it can trace each ingredient within its product to the supplier level in about 15 minutes. It spends another 30 minutes compiling supplier contact information, Payne says.

All wholesale bakers balk at the word recall. All fervently hope they never face such a thing. But for all of them, it pays to be ready.