Ensuring Food Safety by Preventing Food Recalls: The Impact of Locus of Failure, Regulatory Agency Discovery, Breadth, and Firm Size on Corrective Action

We investigate factors which influence corrective action subsequent to quality failures in the context of food product recalls. As recalls are negative surprises, these events can lead to review and potential improvement of existing processes and procedures, therefore corrective action can be viewed as an indication of organizational learning. We study the association of locus of failure, agency discovery of quality failures, recall breadth, and firm size with corrective action subsequent to product recalls using secondary data sources for food recalls regulated by the United States Food and Drug Administration over the period of 2009 to 2012. We discuss implications for policymakers and firms seeking to prevent future recalls and to learn from operational failures.