Recall Lawyer for Food Products

For food and beverage businesses, keeping the health and safety of consumers a priority while carefully managing outbound communications is of the utmost importance during a recall. It is extremely difficult to talk a regulator out of “suggesting” a recall of your product, but there are plenty of strategies to implement that can soften the landing.

We have advised food and beverage companies through recall events since 2018 — across allergen, pathogen, and labeling-driven recalls — which is the experience that lets us move quickly and decisively when a recall starts.

A lawyer can shape many of the decisions made during the critical phases of a recall. Though every recall is different, we take the following steps immediately:

• Retain the services of a food safety expert and other outside consultants on behalf of the client, so that our attorney-client privilege covers the advice they give.
• Retain the services of independent laboratories that can verify adverse test results, again so that the results are covered by our attorney-client privilege.
• Advise the company’s internal Recall Committee on the appropriate recall classification — whether the recall is a Class 1, Class 2, or Class 3 recall.
• Advise the Recall Committee on whether or not to issue the recall.
• Work with regulators to pare down the scope of the recall to an extent no greater than necessary to fulfill the public-health mandate.

In the short term, the expected result of a recall is to immediately safeguard public health. In the weeks and months that follow, our recall lawyers perform financial damage control for the client by:

• Addressing causality within the supply chain, where possible, to identify upstream suppliers of product inputs or third-party processors such as co-packers that are responsible for the recall.
• Aggressively seeking compensation for recall expenses by leveraging the indemnification clauses of our supplier and co-packer agreements.
• Reviewing the company’s insurance policies to determine which recall costs, if any, are covered.
• Interfacing with insurance carriers to maximize the policy payout for covered losses.
• Passing all relevant communications through a committee composed of a public relations professional, production staff, a food safety expert, company principals, and an attorney.

Damage control is significantly easier for clients who take steps to build resiliency in advance — the kind we describe on our Product Recall Mitigation Strategies (pre-recall planning) page. Recalls and FDA enforcement also frequently co-occur, so see FDA Warning Letter Response if a letter has arrived alongside the recall.

Public relations is absolutely critical during a recall. A press release is an FDA-mandated first step toward safeguarding public health — but that is only the beginning. Supply-chain partners and customers will soon be calling with questions and concerns about their health and safety. Every outbound communication must be carefully considered in light of the immediate mandates of the recall as well as the long-term viability of the company and its reputation. All communication must be accurate, effective, and concise, but should not expose the company to any more liability than necessary. This is a sensitive, non-intuitive balancing act, and one of our attorneys screens all outbound communications from the start of the recall until things cool down.

Last reviewed: June 2026

Jason Foscolo Founder of The Food Law Firm — fractional general counsel for food & beverage businesses nationwide.

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