Today, consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers are under intense pressure to deliver quality products while keeping costs down. The push to globalize to meet customer demand, coupled with increasing mergers and acquisitions, makes it almost impossible for CPG companies to cost-effectively manage the quality of ingredients and materials across the supply chain.

If such increased business activity isn’t stressful enough, new regulations mandated by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), or via trading partners, are forcing CPG manufacturers to implement supplier quality management procedures—and prove that the supplier quality regimen is actually executed.

Then there are the risks posed by social media. At least regulators don’t speculate; they are interested only in facts. But what happens when you are trying to defend the quality of your brand from some arbitrary accusation that has been widely publicized via social media, especially when that accusation is due to the business practices of one of your suppliers, something you as a manufacturer have little control over?

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