Your supplier has just recalled a lot. Here's what to do in the next hour.

First, don't guess. Find the lot number.

Every recall notice names a lot or batch number, sometimes a range of them, and a best before date. Write it down exactly. Then go to your delivery records and look for it. If you use SmartTrace, type the lot number in and the system tells you in seconds. If you don't, it's the delivery dockets for the likely dates and a trip to the store room to read bags.

Three outcomes:

• You never had that lot. Note the check in your records with the date and the lot number you were asked about. You're done, and you have proof you looked.
• You have it and haven't used it. Quarantine it: move it, tape it, label it so nobody uses it. Record the quantity. Contact the supplier about collection or credit.
• You have used some or all of it. Keep reading.

Second, find every batch that used it.

This is the step that separates producers with linked records from producers with a diary. You need the list of every batch you made that took anything from that delivery, with dates and quantities.

In SmartTrace, type the lot number into the Traceability page and the system lists every batch for you in seconds, because each batch records which deliveries it took from. With batch sheets, you're reading every sheet since the delivery arrived and hoping the lot was written down each time.

For each batch, note whether any is still on your premises. Quarantine it too.

Third, find every customer who received those batches.

Now go the other direction. For each affected batch, which dispatches went out, to whom, how much, and when? If any of it went into a product made from several batches, a hamper or a mixed box, those products and their customers join the list.

Again, SmartTrace does this for you: the same report shows the dispatches and customers under each batch. On paper, it's the dispatch book.

You now have the three things the authorities and your customers will ask for: the ingredient lot, the batches, and the customers. Print the trace or export it, and put a copy in the recall file.

Fourth, decide and notify.

Read the supplier's notice again for what the problem is. An undeclared allergen, a foreign body, a microbiological result and a labelling slip are all handled differently, and the supplier's notice usually says what they're asking you to do.

• If product that may be unsafe has left your premises, you're obliged to inform your competent authority without delay. In Ireland that's the FSAI and your local Environmental Health Office. They'll help with wording and scope; they're on your side here.
• Contact each business customer on your list. Tell them the product, your batch codes, what to do with it, and how you'll credit them. Keep a note of who you told and when.
• If you sell direct to the public, your authority will advise whether a notice is needed and how to word it.

Fifth, write it up and fix the gap.

Keep the recall notice, your trace, your customer notifications and the credits together. Then ask the honest question: how long did step two take? If the answer was more than a few minutes, that's the thing to fix before the next time. Our short recall plan is worth reading on a quiet day.