When there is a problem
A calm, ordered response: find out exactly what is affected, then deal with each part of it.
A buyer queries a shipment. A laboratory reports a residue. A farmer tells you late that they sprayed something they should not have. The first job is always the same: find out exactly what is affected, before deciding anything.
Step one: work out the scope
- Open Trace & recall.
- Choose what you are starting from — a lot, a farmer, a crop, or a date range.
- Run it. SoftFarm produces a numbered dossier — a dated snapshot of what is affected.
The dossier lists the deliveries involved, the farms behind them, the finished lots, the pallets, and the buyers who received cartons. It also splits the cartons three ways:
| Where they are | What it means |
|---|---|
| Packed | Total cartons produced from the affected produce. |
| Shipped | Already gone to a buyer. These need a phone call. |
| On hand | Still in your cold room. These you control. |
It is a record of what you knew when you decided, with a number and a date. If anyone later asks how you handled it — a buyer, a certifier, an auditor — that is your answer.
Step two: act on each part
Cartons still with you
Write them off with a quality reason. They leave your stock, and the loss is posted to your accounts. Do this before anything can be shipped by mistake.
Cartons already shipped
The dossier names the buyers and orders. Contact them yourself — SoftFarm does not do this for you, and it should not. Tell them:
- Which lot and order numbers are affected
- How many cartons they received from it
- What was found, and how
- What you are doing about it
Buyers deal with problems constantly. What damages a relationship is finding out late, or from someone else.
Produce not yet packed
Reject or quarantine the goods receipt so it cannot enter production.
What this feature does not do
SoftFarm helps you understand and act on the problem. It does not handle physically taking produce back: there is no step for receiving recalled goods, and returned product is not put back into stock. If produce comes back to you, handle it outside the system and record the write-off.
Afterwards
- Talk to the farmer. Most cases are an honest mistake with a legally sold product. They usually did not know, and they can be helped not to repeat it — point them at the input check.
- Check who else was affected. Use co-mingled lots to see which other farms were in the same lots, and co-location to see what shared the cold room.
- Watch that supplier. Keep them out of shared lots until you are confident again.
- Check exposure regularly rather than waiting for the next complaint.
The cheaper version of all this
Every recall traces back to a moment when someone bought a product without checking it. The whole chain above costs a fraction as much if your farmers check at the counter, and if you read the spray history at goods-in before accepting.