Do I also have to warn people who bought the product without leaving any details?

You cannot contact them directly, so the correct channel is the public notice. Post the text at the till and where the product was on sale, publish it on the shop's active channels and keep it up while the recall stays open. It is also a chance to see how much of your customer base is unreachable: if that share is high, the fix belongs before the next recall, not during it.

A customer has already opened the pack and used half of it: what do I do?

Apply the same rule you set for everyone, communicated to the team before contacts start. In most recalls an opened pack should still be brought back, because it documents the batch, and it must be kept without decanting. If the supplier or the authority list signs to watch for in the animal, include them in the message and invite contact with a vet, without adding clinical judgements of your own.

How long should I keep the recall documentation?

Agree the period with the supplier and the competent authority, because it depends on the type of product and its stated shelf life. The practical rule is to keep everything at least until the latest expiry among the batches involved, and in any case for the whole period the product might still be in use at a customer's home. An archive ordered by recall date makes retrieval immediate.

How do I make the next recall less painful?

Recording the batch at the point of sale is the one change that genuinely transforms the situation, because it turns a date window search into an exact selection. Failing that, keeping customer profiles and recurring deliveries up to date still narrows the scope. Run a cold drill once a year on a randomly chosen product and measure how long it takes to produce the list.

Running a pet shop60 minLevel: IntermediateUpdated on August 4, 2026

Running a batch recall and contacting only the customers involved

How to stop sales, identify who actually bought that batch, write the notice and keep the evidence a recall leaves behind.

Audience: Pet shops
Species: All species
Scope: Italy, European Union, Valid everywhere

What you need before you start

La comunicazione del fornitore o dell'autorità con numero di lotto, scadenza e motivo del provvedimento
Lo storico degli ordini con le righe prodotto, per risalire a chi ha acquistato il lotto
Un recapito verificato per ciascun cliente coinvolto e il consenso a essere contattato
Il nome della persona che coordina il richiamo e risponde alle domande di clienti e fornitore

A batch recall tests two things in a shop: traceability and communication. Traceability decides whether you know who bought that batch or whether all you can do is warn everyone; communication decides whether the customer stops using the product or files the message under advertising. The two interact, and in the worst way: a notice sent to the whole customer base creates broad alarm, calls from people who are not involved and distrust at the next recall, while the people who genuinely matter get diluted in the noise. This guide describes the operational sequence of the first two hours, the criteria for selecting the customers actually involved, the structure of the message and the documentation to keep when the recall closes, because what remains months later is not the phone call but the record of what was done.

The first two hours: stop before you communicate

The order of actions matters more than speed. Communicating before the stock is blocked means that, while you answer the phone, someone in the shop is still selling a pack from the same batch. The correct sequence is: stop the sale, physically isolate the packs, count what is left in the stockroom, and only then open communication with customers.

Take every pack of the affected product off the shelf, without eyeballing which batch is which: sorting happens afterwards, on a table, with the supplier notice in front of you.
Put the packs in a closed container marked as not for sale, in an area customers cannot reach.
Suspend sales on channels other than the counter too, including orders being picked and deliveries already scheduled.
Count and record the packs recovered, split by batch and expiry: this is the first number the supplier will ask for.
Check whether the same batch was used in your own services, for example in boarding or during a food trial.
Only now move on to finding the customers involved.

Withdrawal and recall are not the same thing

The two words get used interchangeably but describe two different operations, and the difference changes what you have to do. A withdrawal concerns goods still inside the supply chain that have not reached the end user. A recall concerns product already delivered to whoever uses it, and therefore carries the duty to reach people.

Operational difference between the two measures
Aspect	Withdrawal	Recall
Where the goods are	In the shop, the stockroom, in transit	Already at the customer's home
Main action	Stop the sale and separate the product	Inform people and get the packs back
Who must be contacted	Supplier and competent authority	Also every identifiable customer who bought it
Evidence to keep	Count of the goods isolated	List of contacts, date and outcome of each
Public notice	Usually not required	Visible notice in store and on active channels

In the European Union pet food falls within the definition of feed. Article 20 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 provides that a feed business operator which considers that a product does not satisfy the feed safety requirements shall immediately initiate procedures to withdraw it from the market and inform the competent authorities; where the product may have reached the user, the operator shall effectively and accurately inform users and, if necessary, recall products already supplied. In Italy the reference authority on the ground is the veterinary service of the local health authority. Notifications concerning serious risks circulate between member states through the rapid alert system.

Identifying who is actually involved

The goal is not to warn as many people as possible, it is to warn the right ones. Each selection criterion has a different precision, and they are best applied in order, from the most precise to the broadest, stopping once the scope is covered.

Selection criteria, precision and limitation
Criterion	Precision	Limitation to know
Order line with the batch recorded at the till	Highest, it identifies the individual pack	Only available if the batch is recorded
Order line for the product within a date window	High, if the window covers arrival and sell out	Includes a few customers who are not involved
Subscription or recurring delivery of the same product	High, the product and the cadence are both known	Must be cross checked with the last delivery date
Counter purchase with a card or customer profile	Medium, depends on how often customers identify themselves	Anyone buying anonymously is left out
Customer segment by species or size	Low, useful only to estimate the scale	Does not prove purchase, never notify from it
Public notice in store and on channels	No selection, reaches unknown buyers too	Necessary whenever sales are not traced

The ten step procedure

Open a new recall in the dedicated section
Record the recall as soon as the scope is clear, even if the customer messages will go out later. The open recall is the container that will hold affected products, involved customers and notifications sent: handling it separately on a sheet of paper is the fastest way to lose track of who has been warned.
Add the products and batches involved
List every reference given by the supplier, with batch number and expiry exactly as printed on the pack. If the measure covers several sizes of the same product, enter them as separate items: a customer will look at their own pack, not at the commercial name.
Write the reason in one readable line
State the cause given by the supplier in wording a customer can read without interpreting. Avoid adding your own risk assessment: what you communicate must be comparable with the official notice without any divergence.
Extract the customer list from the orders
Search the orders for lines containing the product within the date window you defined. Add separately anyone receiving the product on a recurring delivery, because a scheduled delivery may not appear among fulfilled orders.
Check the counter of affected customers
The screen shows how many customers are affected and how many have already been notified. If the affected figure is far lower than you expect, the selection is too narrow: revise the date window before proceeding, not afterwards.
Verify contact details before sending
Check that every selected customer has a valid contact and that it is one you have permission to write to. Prepare a separate list for those with no usable contact: those people have to be reached in store or through the public notice.
Send the notification from the recall
Use the notify action on the recall, so every send stays linked to the measure and the notified counter updates. Do not send parallel messages from other tools: when it comes to reporting you would not be able to say who received what.
Post the notice in store and on active channels
Print a notice and put it where the product was displayed and at the till. Publish the same text on the shop's channels, including the online storefront if it is live. This is the step that reaches whoever bought without identifying themselves.
Handle returns with a single rule
Decide in advance how you treat packs brought back, including those already opened and those without a receipt, and give the same rule to the whole team. Decisions made case by case at the counter create differences between customers that get noticed immediately.
Close the recall once the scope is covered
Close it only when every contactable customer has been warned, recovered stock has been handled as instructed and the evidence is filed. Record the closing date and the final counts: that is what will let you answer, months later, a question about what was done.

The customer message: structure and rules

The message has one job: make people stop using the product and tell them what to do now. Anything not serving that purpose has to go, including long apologies and general reassurance, which move attention away from the action required.

Message blocks and content
Block	What to write
Subject line	Recall of a product our records show you purchased, with the commercial name
Immediate action	Stop using the product, as the first sentence of the text
Identification	Product name, size, batch number and expiry, and where to find them on the pack
Reason	The cause stated by the supplier, in one sentence, with no added interpretation
What to do now	How to return the pack, by when, what to bring, what happens with an opened pack
What to watch for	Signs prompting contact with a vet, where the supplier or authority list them
Contact	Name of the person responsible, contact details and the hours they really answer

Put the required action on the first line: people reading on a phone screen often see nothing else.
Do not include offers, discounts or marketing in the same message: they make the notice read as advertising.
Print the batch number in large digits and say where it appears on the pack, because that is what the customer has to check.
Give a deadline for returns, otherwise packs trickle back over an indefinite period.
Prepare a short version for channels with a character limit, pointing to the full text posted in store.
Have someone unfamiliar with the case read the message before it goes out: if they need to read it twice, rewrite it.

Records, evidence and closing

The part that gets forgotten is filing, and it is the only one that counts if someone asks about the recall months later. It takes little, but it has to be collected as it happens rather than reconstructed afterwards.

The original notice from the supplier or the authority, with the date it was received.
List of batches involved and the count of packs isolated in store and in the stockroom.
List of selected customers together with the criterion used to select them.
Date and channel of each notification sent, with the outcome where available.
A copy of the text sent and a photograph of the notice posted in store.
Register of packs returned, with date, customer and condition of the pack.
Return or disposal document for the goods, following the instruction received.
Closing date of the recall and the final counts of affected and notified customers.

Common mistakes during a recall

Mistake, consequence and correction
Mistake	Consequence	Correction
Messaging the whole customer base to be safe	Widespread alarm and distrust at the next recall	Select by order line within the date window
Communicating before blocking the sale	Product keeps leaving while you answer calls	Isolate the stock as the very first action
Adding a promotion to the message	The notice reads as advertising and is ignored	One message with a single stated purpose
Refund rules decided case by case	Differences between customers and disputes at the counter	One written rule, identical for the whole team
Notifications sent from different tools	No way to know who was actually warned	Always send from the recall, so one count exists
No notice posted in store	Anyone who bought anonymously is left out	Notice at the till and at the display point
Recall closed without filing the evidence	No possible answer to a later inspection	File as it happens, not afterwards

Frequently asked questions

Do I also have to warn people who bought the product without leaving any details?: You cannot contact them directly, so the correct channel is the public notice. Post the text at the till and where the product was on sale, publish it on the shop's active channels and keep it up while the recall stays open. It is also a chance to see how much of your customer base is unreachable: if that share is high, the fix belongs before the next recall, not during it.
A customer has already opened the pack and used half of it: what do I do?: Apply the same rule you set for everyone, communicated to the team before contacts start. In most recalls an opened pack should still be brought back, because it documents the batch, and it must be kept without decanting. If the supplier or the authority list signs to watch for in the animal, include them in the message and invite contact with a vet, without adding clinical judgements of your own.
How long should I keep the recall documentation?: Agree the period with the supplier and the competent authority, because it depends on the type of product and its stated shelf life. The practical rule is to keep everything at least until the latest expiry among the batches involved, and in any case for the whole period the product might still be in use at a customer's home. An archive ordered by recall date makes retrieval immediate.
How do I make the next recall less painful?: Recording the batch at the point of sale is the one change that genuinely transforms the situation, because it turns a date window search into an exact selection. Failing that, keeping customer profiles and recurring deliveries up to date still narrows the scope. Run a cold drill once a year on a randomly chosen product and measure how long it takes to produce the list.

What to do next

Stop the sale and isolate the packs before writing to anyone, then open a recall, add batches and products and select customers starting from order lines within the date window. Always send notifications from the recall, so the notified count stays single, and post the notice in store for anyone you cannot identify. File the supplier notice, the lists, the text sent and the returns as they happen: that is the only part that lasts.