Customer Complaints Program

A customer complaints program is a written system for receiving, logging, ranking, investigating and answering complaints about a food product, and for using complaint trends to fix problems before they cause illness or a recall.

  • Food safety
  • Food safety programs

A complaints program spells out who takes a complaint, what details to collect, how to rate its risk, how to find the root cause and how fast to respond. Complaints may describe an illness, an allergic reaction to an ingredient missing from the label, damaged packaging or suspected tampering, the same kinds of problems FDA asks consumers to report. A University of Idaho Extension guide recommends logging every complaint in one database or spreadsheet, rating it high, medium or low risk, reviewing trends every quarter, and handling food safety complaints that could lead to a recall first.

Customers are often the first to notice a problem, so one complaint can be an early warning. FDA says that as few as one or two complaints can make a difference, and its inspectors may discuss complaints with company management. If a complaint uncovers food that could cause serious harm or death, a registered facility must report it to FDA's Reportable Food Registry within 24 hours of making that determination. Tracking complaints over time also shows whether fixes worked.

Key facts

Unreported complaints
About 25 go unreported for each one received (cited by UI Extension)
Suggested response times
High risk 24 hours; medium 3 days; low 7 days
Reportable Food Registry deadline
No later than 24 hours after determining a food is reportable
Trend review
Quarterly

In a bakery or commercial kitchen

  • Log each complaint with the date, product, lot or date code, where it was bought, a description and any photos
  • Rank complaints by risk and set response targets, such as 24 hours for high-risk food safety issues
  • Investigate root causes together with the staff who make the product, and record the corrective action taken
  • Set a normal complaint baseline; when complaints rise above it, start testing and consider whether a recall is needed
  • Review complaint trends each quarter by product and cause to catch repeat problems

For home and cottage bakers

  • Report a suspected food illness to your local health department, and contact a healthcare provider if you feel sick
  • Report problems with most foods to FDA at 1-888-SAFEFOOD (1-888-723-3366) or through the Safety Reporting Portal
  • Report meat, poultry or processed egg product problems to the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-674-6854
  • Save photos and any leftover product, since pictures and samples help a company investigate

Related entries

Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 17, 2026.

  1. Handling Customer Complaints in Food Manufacturing (BUL 1034), University of Idaho Extension
  2. FDA 101: How to Use the Consumer Complaint System and MedWatch, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  3. How to Report a Problem with Food, FoodSafety.gov
  4. Reportable Food Registry (RFR) At a Glance, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  5. Developing a Recall Plan: A Guide for Small Food Processing Facilities (B1509), University of Georgia Cooperative Extension