The One Call No CPG Founder Is Ready For

There's a story I tell at almost every founder dinner I host.

We were in the final stretch of a deal with Coca-Cola. Months of due diligence, site visits, financial modeling — one of the largest beverage companies in the world sitting across the table from us. And then... we found something. A potential quality issue in one of our production runs.

The pressure in that room was enormous. Deals like this have momentum. Everyone wants them to close. The temptation to minimize, to rationalize, to keep moving was real.

We pressed pause.

And what I tell founders when I share that story isn't about the heroism of it. It's about the relief. Because we had the systems to catch it. We had lot traceability. We had a QA process that flagged the issue before it became a crisis. We had an HACCP plan that meant something beyond a piece of paper on a shelf.

We paused. We fixed it. Coca-Cola respected us for it.

"There is no wrong time to do the right thing."

That's not a motto. That was a decision made under enormous financial pressure, and it held because the systems underneath it held.

Most founders I work with aren't thinking about recalls when they're launching. They're thinking about velocity, shelf placement, fundraising. And that makes sense... you're surviving, not planning for a disaster that hasn't happened yet. But here's what I know after building 8 companies and decades in CPG: a recall during your first few years, or during a fundraising round, can be catastrophic. Not just for the brand. For the entire trajectory of the company.

Investor confidence evaporates. Retailer trust takes years to rebuild. You're managing the FDA, the media, and furious customers simultaneously, without a playbook.

You cannot learn recall preparedness during a recall.

I didn't always know that. Early in my career, if someone had asked me what an HACCP plan was, I would have nodded like I knew. I didn't. I learned what I didn't know the hard way — usually in front of people I wanted to impress, like a Whole Foods buyer who looked at me like I had two heads when I couldn't answer basic food safety questions. That particular moment of ignorance cost me credibility I had to earn back over months.

"Hope is not a strategy." And hoping you never have to issue a recall is definitely not a strategy.

So let me give you what I wish someone had given me earlier.

1. Lot Traceability Is Not Optional

If you can't tell me within 30 minutes which stores your affected product is in, which production run it came from, and which supplier provided the flagged ingredient... you're not ready.

Lot traceability isn't sexy. It won't show up in your pitch deck. But it is the single most important operational system you can build in years one and two.

Track every ingredient, every lot number, every co-manufacturer production run. If you outsource production — and most of you do — make this a non-negotiable in your contract. They track, they report, and you have real-time access. Not "send us the records when there's a problem." Access, always.

At Suja, we were processing more than 1.5 million pounds of fruits and vegetables every week. Some of it harvested less than 24 hours earlier, moving through multiple production facilities across seven manufacturing locations. At that scale, traceability isn't just about recalls — it's how you manage quality every single day. We built those systems early, and they paid for themselves a hundred times over.

2. Know Your HACCP Plan (And Actually Mean It)

HACCP — Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points — is the FDA's framework for identifying and controlling food safety hazards in your production process. If you're selling a food or beverage product nationally, you need one.

More importantly, you need one that actually reflects how you make your product. Not a template you downloaded from a food safety consultant's website, signed, and filed.

The specific critical control points depend entirely on your product. Cold-pressed juice? HPP (high pressure processing) is your kill step. Shelf-stable sauce? Thermal processing. Whatever your process is, document where the hazards are, what you do about them, and what "out of specification" looks like at each critical point.

Don't wait for a retailer to ask. Don't wait for an audit. Know this cold. Practice explaining it. Because the moment a Whole Foods QA team or an FDA inspector or a major acquirer walks in and you can't answer basic questions about your own production process... you have a much bigger problem than food safety.

3. Audit Your Suppliers Before They Become Your Problem

Most recalls in food and beverage don't originate with the brand. They start upstream — with an ingredient supplier who cuts corners, a co-manufacturer with inadequate sanitation protocols, a contract lab that missed an allergen in a seasoning blend.

You are responsible for all of it. The FDA doesn't care that it was your supplier's fault.

Build a supplier qualification process. For every key ingredient:

Visit the facility if you can.
Get their SQF, BRC, or equivalent third-party certification and review it.
Understand their recall history — if they've had one, ask exactly what they changed.
Require allergen statements and certificate of analysis for every lot.
Know your backup supplier. One source for a critical ingredient is a fragile supply chain.

A recall during fundraising is a nightmare. A recall traced back to an unqualified supplier you never audited? That's an absolute disaster — because now you have a legal problem layered on top of an operational one.

4. Build a Crisis Protocol Before You Need It

When a recall happens — and I say "when" not "if," because if you're in CPG long enough, you will face this — you need to move fast. The FDA has mandatory reporting timelines. Retailers expect immediate notification. Your investors need to hear about it from you, not from a Google alert.

Build a one-page recall protocol right now. Answer these questions before you're under pressure:

Who is the internal recall coordinator? One person owns this. Not "we'll figure it out."
What is the FDA reporting timeline and which office do we contact? (Class I recall for health risk: immediate. Class II for remote risk: 24 hours. Know the difference.)
Which retailers carry which lot numbers, and how do we reach the right buyer contact within the hour?
Who is our external food safety legal counsel? You need one on call before you need them, not after.
Who handles media inquiries? One spokesperson. One message.
What does our product liability insurance cover, and what are the per-occurrence limits?

That last one. CPG product liability insurance is not expensive relative to the risk... and most founders don't have it at launch. Get it. And understand what your recall insurance covers, because product liability and recall expense reimbursement are often separate policy riders. Read the policy. Call your broker now, not during a crisis.

5. Communicate Early and Honestly

The number one mistake I see brands make during a quality crisis isn't the crisis itself. It's the communication around it.

Every retailer I've ever worked with — Whole Foods, Costco, Target — they can forgive a mistake. What they cannot forgive is finding out late. Or finding out you knew more than you told them.

Call the buyer before they call you. Give them the lot numbers. Give them the affected SKUs. Give them the recovery timeline. Be precise. Be honest. Walk them through your corrective action before they ask for it.

And your investors? They need to hear this directly from you, with a clear-eyed plan. Not minimized. Not framed as a non-issue because it probably won't be widely reported. "Here's what happened. Here's what we're doing. Here's what it costs. Here's how we prevent it next time."

Integrity under pressure is visible. People remember it — on both sides of the table.

One more thing I've seen trip up early-stage brands: the scale of a recall can compound your "Rule of Twos" pain in ways nobody warns you about. Twice as expensive as you expect. Twice as long to resolve. Twice as much retailer communication as you planned for. The operational burden hits simultaneously with the brand damage — and both require management bandwidth you may not have.

Which is why the prep matters so much. A brand that's done the work — traceability, protocols, supplier audits, insurance, relationships — can execute a recall professionally and come out the other side stronger. Retailers have told me they've given more shelf space to brands after a well-managed recall, because they saw operational discipline under pressure.

A brand that's unprepared? The recall doesn't just cost product and shelf space. It can end the company.

"Gross margin determines destiny." I say that all the time. It's true. But you don't get to realize your destiny if a recall wipes out the brand before you get there.

Build the playbook now. On a Tuesday. Before anyone's watching.

If you want to build operational infrastructure that actually scales — including food safety systems, supplier management, and the fundamentals that keep brands alive through the hard moments — the CPG Founders MBA is where we cover all of it. And if you want to stress-test your current operations with me directly, the 90-Day Breakthrough is where we do that work together.