Frequently Asked Questions - GS1 Canada Product Recall
Any company that trades products in Canada. The service is not limited to manufacturer-to-retailer product recalls. It also enables the management of occurrences such as:
- Manufacturers issuing recall notifications to distributors and retailers
- Distributors issuing recall notifications to manufacturers and distributors
- Distributors issuing recall notifications to retailers
- Importers issuing recall notifications to retailers and distributors
- All companies issuing product withdrawals to all trading partners
Mock Recall is an online tool within the Product Recall service (available only to Product Recall subscribers) that simulates the step-by-step process of executing a product recall. Through periodic testing recall procedures using Mock Recall, companies can ensure their personnel are trained, compliant and recall-ready.
Consumers are increasingly demanding transparent and detailed information about the products they purchase and consume. To meet their needs, trading partners are looking to brand owners to supply 100% complete and accurate brand owner-certified content.
To build up the response capabilities needed for an actual recall. Users step through a series of online tasks developed to help build expediency and efficiency in issuing a live product recall.
Log in to your myGS1 account, select the Product Recall service and click on "Go to Mock Recall". Execute a Mock Recall to earn your recall readiness certificate.
No organization plans on recalling products. Yet, the day something happens that necessitates a recall or withdrawal, it is critical that there is a standardized and simple process in place to accelerate the exchange of recall information between trading partners.
By joining forces with other organizations to exchange recall information via this service, you will be better able to manage the critical information involved in a product recall or withdrawal.
GS1 Canada recommends that you begin the registration process as soon as possible, so as to ensure that your organization is ready to initiate or receive recalls or withdrawals as soon as you begin trading in the marketplace.
Organizations of all sizes benefit from standardizing and simplifying the exchange of recall or withdrawal information.
Built by industry for industry, this service enables fast, accurate and efficient communication of product recalls and withdrawals. It also helps you to meet Canada's product safety and incident reporting requirements as outlined in Canada's Consumer Safety Act. The service allows subscribers to complete, issue, and track all incident reports from a single web-based application.
Yes. Included with GS1 Canada's Product Recall service for general merchandise is Incident Reporting, an online tool that allows you to send, receive, and manage all Incident Reports with your trading partners and Health Canada from one single location within one system, while enabling compliance with the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act.
Yes, it uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security protocol for the transmission of data. SSL provides communications security over the Internet by preventing unauthorized access to information shared through the service.
GS1 Canada is a neutral, not-for-profit organization that facilitates industry collaboration. At industry's request, GS1 Canada brought together a coalition of founding participants–made up of manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and association representatives–to identify the features of a standardized product recall, withdrawal, and incident reporting communications service.
Now that the service is up and running, GS1 Canada continues to perform the roles detailed below in order to maintain the underlying system and ensure that industry feedback is integrated with it:
- Administrator: GS1 Canada conducts a comprehensive review of registration applications in order to ensure that only authorized and authenticated organizations and individuals have access.
- Customer Service: GS1 Canada supports the service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through our Subscriber Support team. Support personnel are available Monday-Friday 8:30am-6:30pm EST at 1.800.567.7084. After hours support is available by contacting info@gs1ca.org
- Liaison: GS1 Canada acts as a liaison between users of the service, Hewlett-Packard (the organization that built the technical platform), and the coalition of founding participants, as feedback from subscribers is received and upgrades are needed.
In order to receive and exchange recall information with trading partners in both the US and Canada, you must subscribe to both GS1 Canada's Product Recall service and to the Rapid Recall Exchange service of GS1 US. This will enable you to receive and send separate recall notifications with country-specific information to the appropriate trading partners.
When issuing a recall, this service enables your organization to send an abbreviated form of the full notification to any additional trading partner who is not yet subscribed to the service, including your US trading partners. The abbreviated notification is for information purposes only. Your trading partners are encouraged to subscribe to the service to take advantage of the full benefits that it offers, whereby, for example, your trading partners could:
- Access the extended recall notification
- Instantly exchange comments and questions with your recall team
- Report on the progress of the recall
- Distribute the notification to your own trading partners
For a complete overview of the subscription process, view the Recall Ready Subscription Checklist (Document link opens in new tab.).
The sector that you should choose would depend on the following two criteria:
- The primary sector in which your product is marketed.
- The government authority to which you are required to report recalls and other incidents.
All trading partners that are subscribers to the service and that you select as targets for notification will receive them.
Your feedback is important to us:
- Log-in (External link opens in new tab.) to GS1 Canada Product Recall
- Call us at 1.800.567.7084 or email info@gs1ca.org for more information.
How to Subscribe to the Service
Any organization that has a product sold in Canada. Organizations must have a valid GS1 Licence to participate in this service.
Organizations that already have a registered Company Prefix Licence with another GS1 member organization, such as GS1 US or GS1 UK, can access this service, subject to participation fees.
Become GS1 Canada Recall Ready through our three-stage process:
- Register: Get the subscription process started by providing your information as Subscription Administrator, and your Person of Authority's (POA's) contact information.
- Verify Information: GS1 Canada will email you instructions on how to get your contact information verified by the POA in your organization (i.e., your direct manager, HR Director, or CFO).
- Subscribe: Once this confirmation is received, GS1 Canada will email you the final instructions to complete the subscription process.
View the GS1 Canada Recall Ready Subscription Checklist (Document link opens in new tab.) – your guide becoming Recall Ready.
There are three Company Types within GS1 Canada's Product Recall service:
- Recall Initiator: A Recall Initiator is typically a manufacturer or supplier. These companies are responsible for providing accurate, clear, and timely information to a Recall Receiver company in order for proper action.
- Recall Receiver: A Recall Receiver is typically a retailer/wholesaler/distributor. These companies are responsible for taking action on the information from the Recall Initiator Company in a timely manner.
- Both: The Both Company Type is typically a manufacturer/distributor that may act as either an Initiator or Receiver depending on their relationship with the recalled product. Depending on which role they play for a specific product, they are responsible for the Initiator or Receiver role described above.
Are you a company type called Recall Initiator?
If so, you are required to have the following roles assigned to a user:
| Role | Role Description | Minimum Number of Users Required | More information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initiator | An Initiator is typically a manufacturer or supplier. These companies are responsible for providing accurate, clear, and timely information regarding a recalled product to a Recall Receiver company in order for proper action. | 1 | Must be a different user than Approver |
| Approver | The Recall Approver receives a completed Recall Notification Form that has been submitted by the Recall Initiator. The Recall Approver reviews the submitted Recall Notification Form, attachments and associated targets and can choose to Reject the Recall, and/or Send it Live. The Recall Approver cannot create a Recall Notification. | 1 | Must be a different user than Initiator |
Are you a company type called Both?
If so, you are required to have the following roles assigned to a user:
| Role | Role Description | Minimum Number of Users Required | More information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initiator | An Initiator is typically a manufacturer or supplier. These companies are responsible for providing accurate, clear, and timely information regarding a recalled product to a Recall Receiver company in order for proper action. | 1 | Must be a different user than Approver |
| Approver | The Recall Approver receives a completed Recall Notification Form that has been submitted by the Recall Initiator. The Recall Approver reviews the submitted Recall Notification Form, attachments and associated targets and can choose to Reject the Recall, and/or Send it Live. The Recall Approver cannot create a Recall Notification. | 1 | Must be a different user than Initiator |
| Receiver | The Receiver is the intended recipient of the Recall Notification Form. The Receiver will use the information included in the Recall Notification Form, including attachments, to carry out the Recall. The Receiver cannot create, approve, or send a Recall | 1 | Can be the same as Initiator or Approver |
Are you a company type called Receiver?
If so, you are required to have the following roles assigned to a user:
| Role | Role Description | Minimum Number of Users Required | More information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Receiver | The Receiver is the intended recipient of the Recall Notification Form. The Receiver will use the information included in the Recall Notification Form, including attachments, to carry out the Recall. The Receiver cannot create, approve, or send a Recall | 1 | Can be the same as Initiator or Approver |
Only the Subscription Administrator can assign or edit users for your company. If you have received an email asking you to assign user roles, you are the Subscription Administrator for your company. As a Subscription Administrator, follow these steps to assign a user:
- Go to https://recall.gs1ca.org (External link opens in new tab.) and log in with your User ID and Password.
- Select your service (Grocery or General Merchandise) on the left hand menu under Subscription. The page will refresh.
- Select the Manage Accounts link above the grey toolbar.
- Add the number of users based on your Company Type. To determine your company type, please refer to Q&A # 3.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Add User.
- Enter the information about the new user and click Continue.
- On the next page, confirm the information and select a User Role using the checkbox.
- When finished, click Add User.
- Repeat process until you have the number of users in the correct roles as required.
Once this step has been completed, refer to the Recall Ready Subscription Checklist (Document link opens in new tab.) to ensure that you are on track to complete the remaining two items (view mandatory webinar and issue a mock recall) to become Recall Ready!
By adding sufficient users and assigning them to the correct roles now, your company will be ready to respond efficiently to any unforeseen event. It also enables your Product Safety team to become aware of their new roles. It also assures your retail trading partners that you are ready to move forward with this new industry standard.