Contact Us
Weekend Contacts
If you need to speak to a colleague from Supply or ALS at the weekend please use one of the following numbers
- Fresh & Frozen: 0113 826 1700
- Ambient, Non-Edible Groceries & Healthcare: 0113 826 1199
- General Merchandise: 0113 826 1400
- ALS: 0113 826 4816
The office will be covered from 8am - 4pm on both days and the main switchboard is open - number 0113 2435435, at the following times:
- Saturday: 09:00 - 17:30
- Sunday: 10:00 - 16:00
The Inbound Team is available on Saturday & Sunday 8am - 4pm
- Tel: 08432 990018
- Email: asdadcbookings@asda.co.uk
For queries regarding Primary Operations, please contact Jason Bearman on 07779 700467
For any serious product issue, such as a withdrawal, please follow the below procedure:
- Call the EIC (Emergency Incident Centre) on 0141 647 2000 for all product issues. They will then contact the relevant on call person (Food or Non Food).
- This applies across Asda/George Brand and Branded product issues.
Customer Complaints should be given the following number to call: 0843 504 7224
Technical Incident Management (supplier facing policy)
The ASDA technical department must be informed at the earliest opportunity of an issue that affects product safety, legality or quality. This could lead to a product withdrawal or recall from sale. No information must be placed in the public domain without ASDA being first made aware. This relates to any product sold by ASDA.
A Food incident is classified by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) as contamination of food or animal feed in processing, distribution, retail and catering and as a result food may need to be withdrawn or recalled. From an Asda perspective we need to ensure the integrity of our brand and the protection of our customers is maintained.
|
Incident |
Definition |
Examples |
|
Withdrawal |
when unsafe food is removed from the supply chain, this could be due to quality, legality or safety concerns and potential for reputational damage. Product removed from sale but customers are not informed or requested to return product |
is where a product doesn't meet our high standards or would cause brand reputational damage |
|
Recall |
when unsafe food is removed from the supply chain and consumers are advised to take appropriate action, for example to return or dispose of the unsafe food. Imperative that product is removed from sale and appropriate authorities are informed. Likely to cause harm, injury, illness. |
is where a product presents a risk of harm or injury or doesn’t meet legislation |
|
Withdraw to hold
|
must only be used by exception and as a temporary option. The decision to ‘hold’ the product is not an indefinite one. |
This can give the business time to ascertain more facts e.g. pending test results. |
For ASDA own brand product ASDA will manage the communication with government departments unless other retailers are involved. In this case then the communication must first be agreed with ASDA before being led by the FBO.
For branded products it is always the FBOs responsibility to communicate with the government departments.
This procedure is in place to ensure ASDA customers remain safe and that prompt contact is made by the FBO to Asda and prompt action is taken by the technical team and documented. Asda reserves the right to withdraw or recall any Asda brand product where they believe there to be a food safety, legality risk or to continue to sell it would be detrimental to the brand integrity.
It is a requirement of supply that, if your site is involved in any product recall, you communicate this with your Asda Technical contact to confirm if the recall affects products supplied to Asda or not. This must be prior to any public notification being released by your business or a third party (e.g. Food Standards Agency (FSA) notification).
During office hours (Monday to Friday 8:00 – 17:00) contact to be made within 1 hour of an issue being identified, even if investigation is ongoing.
Asda branded products – first contact must be via a phone call to the technical manager/technologist responsible for the product – if they are not available then leave a message and follow up with an email. Please watch out for ‘out of office’ replies and contact the technical manager/technologist listed, if an out of office is received. If no one responds within 15 minutes please then contact the Senior Technical Manager and then Senior Director Technical and then Commercial until contact is made.
Branded products – contact Commercial/trader and send an email to Food Safety Compliance <FoodSafetyCompliance@asda.co.uk>
until contact and confirmation is made. The decision to withdraw or recall sits with the brand owner and Asda will act on the instruction and only instigate on our systems.
Outside office hours: any time outside of above contact via Emergency Incident Centre (EIC) on 0044 (0)1416-472000 and you will be directed to the technical on call colleague. You must have the following information to hand before making contact;
-
Summary of incident
-
Company name
-
Contact telephone number and email
-
Product and WIN including batch/date code information
Asda branded products After making initial contact the incident log (sent to you by Asda technical/downloaded from HIVE) must be completed, within 1 hour and returned. This log will then be sent to the relevant stakeholders – category technical manager, senior technical manager and the colleague you have made contact with (if different). An image of the front of the product must be included and this will be used if a withdrawal/recall notice is needed.
Following internal discussions further questions may be asked/information requested. This must be shared in a timely manner.
All Recalls must have a root cause analysis conducted and this must be shared with your category technical manager within 1 month and uploaded onto HIVE. If the FSA requests a root cause analysis they will share their own documentation which will also require completion. This must be reviewed by Asda before being submitted to the FSA.
All withdrawals and recalls will be followed up by unannounced reactive audits.
