Product Recall

A product recall is a system in which, when a safety defect is found in a product, the manufacturer recovers / repairs / replaces the product. Recalls can occur in every product category, including cars, home appliances, food, pharmaceuticals, and toys. The speed and accuracy of a recall are directly linked to consumer safety and to trust in the manufacturer.

QR codes improve recall handling in three respects. The first is identifying the products concerned. If lot numbers and serial numbers are stored in QR codes, the lots subject to the recall can be identified accurately, avoiding the waste of recovering products that are not affected. The second is notifying consumers. By scanning a product's QR code, consumers can access a page where they can check in real time whether that product is subject to a recall. The third is raising the recovery rate. Consumers can go directly from the QR code to the recall request form, and minimizing the effort of the procedure raises the recovery rate.

In the food industry, the linking of traceability and recalls through QR codes is advancing. When food poisoning occurs, the lot number stored in the QR code of the food that caused it makes it possible to trace immediately which stores the products from the same lot were shipped to, and to issue recovery instructions to those stores. Tracing that used to take several days is completed in a few hours.