Reusing and relabelling over original boxes (of another company)
Hi All,
I would like to ask if any of you have been reusing boxes of other companies and putting your label over it.
This sounds like a ridiculous question. I've been in the industry for a long time but this is my first time to deal with this kind of situation.
The product is cauliflower.
The company ran out of their original box. Their sister company is using cauliflower from different supplier for other purpose. They want to reuse the box of another company and put a sticker over it.
My gut feel says this is like tampering and this is more of a legal issue than a food safety issue. The original box can not be fully covered. The original label are big and directly printed on the cardboard. The company just plan on putting a sticker over it.
I tried to look at Canada labeling laws on Tampering and Food Fraud but I can't find a direct answer (or i may have missed it?)
It seems that the industry are reusing boxes? But maybe for internal use only. This one is to be sold to another distributor and I believe the distributor is selling the products to supermarkets.
I am confused right now.
Thanks,
Acko
No, that's not right, they cannot do that. Well, if it was just plain boxes (e.g. white, grey, brown - whatever, but without company and/or product information) they could remove labels and stick their own. However, they definitely cannot place their own labels on the top of original labels.
"My gut feel says this is like tampering and this is more of a legal issue than a food safety issue. The original box can not be fully covered. The original label are big and directly printed on the cardboard. The company just plan on putting a sticker over it. "
..........................
It can and will be both - legal and food safety related.
I can recall three companies right now that did this and they all had recalls because of it - it is seemingly ok to do, but it will get you at some point.
I knew the family that owned one of the companies, they were nice well-meaning people that wanted to save some money and their recall took all that they had and they ended up out of business while the other 2 continued on - with new boxes.
Did you have to approve the supplier of the box you ran out of? If so, it goes without saying you would be out of compliance of your approved supplier program if that's the case.
Did the person pushing for this change run it by your product managers (whoever gets customers to buy your product)? In addition to the possible legal issues, it will look cheesy and unprofessional, and that might hurt your product managers sales numbers (and eventually everyone).