“The average cost of a recall is $540,000, according to some statistics we have seen,” says Mary Ann Platt, executive vice president, RQA Inc., Darien, Ill., a company that specializes in product recall and withdrawal services. “It can vary in the range of $10,000 to $7,000,000. These are direct product and retrieval costs and do not include such 'soft' costs as loss of sales or disruption to business operations.”

Add the cost of a recall to the number of people affected by food allergies, and companies quickly will see the importance of preventing undeclared food allergens in their products. Six to seven million Americans suffer from a food allergy, according to The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN). They estimate that up to 200 people die each year from food allergy-related reactions.