What Happens When a Test Piece Makes It to the Market?

Recently (and it’s not the first time), we had a call here at Regal Packaging Services from someone who located one of our test pieces in a product they bought at the store.  In this case, the test piece was discovered in a half-gallon of ice cream!  We have had calls regarding test pieces found in oatmeal and cereal boxes as well as other products.  They call us simply because our phone number and website are on the test pieces.  We do our best to explain that the test piece is actually meant to protect them from unwanted contaminants in the food they purchased.  Our intent is, of course, to give them confidence in the product they’ve purchased.

The question can be asked, however, is the customer really protected if the test piece is lost in the product?  There are several reasons this could occur:

1. The test piece was just never pulled from the good (clean) product after a test was done, and it travelled on down the production line.
2. The test piece simply slipped out of someone’s hand and was never located prior to shipping.

In both instances, the product is safe.

When we can, we take the caller’s contact information and try to pass that on to the appropriate person in the company whose product the test piece was found.  We never make a promise, however, to the caller that any action will be taken.  That, of course, is left to the offending company.  Still, we believe it’s important to contact our customer whenever possible.  The incident may mean that changes in food safety protocols or HACCP plans will be implemented.  The consumer may choose to contact the company whose brand product they received.

Metal detection and x-ray inspection testing is easily taken for granted.  But it’s not only an important piece of the food safety puzzle, when it’s not done correctly it can mean damage to the company brand or perhaps even litigation.  If the test piece is small enough (like our 3/4” x 1/4″ puck), it could mean consumer safety is compromised.

Mistakes can be made, and there’s no doubt that even in a contaminant free product and process, there may be a rare time when a test piece reaches the market.  Every quality assurance or quality control department should work to ensure no test piece ever gets that far.  It was Jason Hartman who said, “Your personal brand is a promise to your clients… a promise of quality, consistency, competency, and reliability.” Protecting that brand, then, should be of paramount importance.

The truth is that our own brand suffers when a test piece ends up on someone’s dinner table.  We’re a part of the process that, in an ideal world, the buyer should never see, perhaps never know about.  When we say we’re partnering with food companies to keep food safe, it includes the protection of a company’s brand, and that includes our own company.  Our hope is that we’ll never get another call asking that quizzical question, “Why is there a piece of plastic in my food?”