How to run a mock recall in your packhouse (and pass it)

Set the scenario

Pick a lot dispatched two to four weeks ago, long enough that memory will not do the work your records should. Write down the scenario first: the product, the lot code, and the pretend reason (a foreign-object complaint, a positive pathogen test). Start a timer when the exercise begins; time-to-complete is the headline result.

Trace back, then forward

Backward: from the lot code, identify every input lot that fed it, the growers and blocks they came from, and the receival dates. Forward: identify every pallet the lot went onto, every dispatch those pallets left on, and every customer that received them, with quantities.

The reconciliation is the part that fails most drills: quantity received should equal quantity packed plus waste plus stock on hand plus quantity shipped. A gap means product you cannot account for, which in a real recall becomes product you must assume is affected.

What counts as a pass

Common pass criteria: full one-back and one-forward trace completed within two hours (many buyers now expect well under that), quantity reconciliation within a small tolerance, and contact details for every affected customer to hand. Document the drill itself, scenario, timings, gaps found, corrective actions, because the documentation is what the auditor asks to see.

Make the drill boring

The goal is a mock recall so routine it is boring: pick lot, print trace, reconcile, done in minutes. That happens when the trace chain is captured as a by-product of daily work rather than reconstructed from binders. Fernable keeps the receival, pack run, pallet and dispatch links automatically and produces an auditor-ready trace report in one tap, which turns the two-hour drill into a ten-minute one.