Henriott Launches Farm-to-Fork Risk Management Practice

Lafayette, Indiana, November 2022 - Henriott launches a Risk Management Practice dedicated to the unique risks the food, beverage, and agribusiness industries encounter across their farm-to-fork supply chain.

There was a time when large scale product liability losses for bodily injury and illness were the food industry’s number one exposure. Today’s risk is amplified by genome sequencing, epidemiologic data, and social media. The regulatory stakes are also higher, with the Food Safety Modernization Act, Preventive Controls rule, specifying that any company identifying potential hazards in its operations must have a written recall plan.

Henriott’s Director of Risk Management, Zach Finn is a HACCP certified, degreed, risk management and insurance professional with extensive experience handling product contamination events worldwide. Finn explains the importance and the motivating factor to the creation of the Farm-to-Fork Practice.

“Even with insurance, some losses, or the way some losses are handled, are bad enough to be business killers. It is usually trust, goodwill, and reputation that are the hardest assets to rebuild once lost. The economic cost of a recall, including lost sales, is likely to be many times larger than actual bodily injury claims. Some of the most expensive elements of a product contamination event are not covered by commercial general liability insurance, including reverse logistics and storage expense, impaired, damaged and/or unsalable property, inventory destruction costs, adverse publicity, and brand rehabilitation expenses.”

Andrew Ball, Co-CEO of Henriott, explains why it was important to support these efforts.

“The last 2 years have shown us how fragile our supply chains are and hardly a week goes by without news of a recall event. When you think of baby formula, peanut butter, salad, cookie dough,…. the list goes on and on. With a rise in food insecurity and inflationary pressures these recalls are literally causing disruptions at a National Security level. We took a critical look at the insurance industry and found gaps in the knowledge and capabilities of agents; some not even aware that recall insurance exists, many unable to explain how it responds. There was also a fundamental gap when it comes to risk management basics covering internal preparedness and crisis response stress tests. Simply put, the industry bar needs to be raised.”

Finn, continues to explain.

“The severity of a product contamination incident is driven by your response time to a crisis. Costs are exacerbated during seasonal peak sales, special promotions, etc. Pre-planning can provide an opportunity to maximize redundant assets, contract manufacturing relationships, conduct SKU rationalization, and take other measures to mitigate the impact of lost sales during and/or post incident.”

The Henriott Farm-to-Fork risk management program combines industry best practice, HACCP expertise, pre-incident planning, crisis response and if required a deep understanding of recall insurance and risk financing strategies. If you are responsible for your firm’s product contamination exposure, you understand there is much at stake in the management of a crisis. The likelihood that you will miss a critical step, opportunity or be delayed in some element of your response is a hazard that comes from not having a TESTED Crisis Response Plan (CRP). Henriott will assist in the development, review and/or testing of your firm’s Crisis Response Plan. And should the worst happen, Henriott provides response services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in the case of a suspected product contamination incident, including lab testing, PR and media response, and product recall/withdrawal retrievals.

ABOUT HENRIOTT GROUP

Henriott is an independent Risk Management firm dedicated to helping clients prevent, manage, and recover from critical incidents. Working in both public and private entities through effective risk management, risk financing, commercial insurance, employee benefits, human resources, crisis management, contingency planning, and crisis response.

CONTACT

Zach Finn, Director of Risk Management (765) 429-5001 zfinn@henriott.com

Grace Pritchett, Communications (765) 838-8610) gpritchett@henriott.com