UK product recalls have jumped by 27% from 229 in 2010 to a record 291 in 2011, the second year in a row to see record breaking increases, according to law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain.

According to RPC, this year’s increase was driven by a jump in recalls of faulty electrical consumer products, up 45% from 40 in 2010 to 58 in 2011, along with a big rise in recalls involving food products, up from 35 recalls in 2010 to 70 recalls in 2011.

“Product recalls of ‘white goods’ and other electrical products tend to involve lesser-known or budget brand names,” comments Stuart White, a partner at RPC. “The increase this year could have been fed by high consumer demand for cheaper brands, particularly in the case of bigger ticket household products like cookers or freezers. It may be that some white label or smaller producers have had to source cheaper suppliers to be competitive.”

White says that supply chain disruptions could well have fed in to this rise in product recalls: “From natural disasters to political unrest, the last 12 months has seen substantial supply chain disruptions. These will inevitably have put pressure on manufacturers who may well have turned to third or fourth tier suppliers to cope with the supply shortage.”

“Product quality may have suffered as a result, increasing the likelihood of having to carry out a recall.”

RPC explains that delaying a recall can be both expensive and damaging to a business’s reputation. It was reported that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer put aside $772m (£476m) to resolve claims from consumers that its hormone replacement drugs caused serious illness.

In 2011 Beko, the Turkish electrical appliance supplier, recalled around 500,000 freezers after concerns that they were linked to a number of domestic fires. However, the company faced criticism from some consumer groups for failing to act swiftly enough after initial reports of a fault back in 2010.

“Much negative publicity has been directed at big brand-name companies who have allegedly put their customers at risk by delaying recalls. Because of this, other corporates are very wary of putting their reputation in jeopardy by delaying a recall,” White says.

“The increasingly seamless spread of information through social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter has also made it easier for consumers to complain about products to one another. Where a problem may once have been locally contained, it is now much easier for that complaint to become viral.”

Recalls in the food and drink sector have doubled in the last year, from 35 to 70, returning to the level they were at back in 2007-8.

It was reported this year that Kellogg’s was investing $70m (£43.6m) in its factories after job cuts made during the recession resulted in poorer production quality of its products.

Jason Bright, a partner at RPC, says: “The pressure on manufacturers to do more with less may well have affected food production standards in a minority of cases.”

“The European wide E-Coli outbreak in June this year has put food safety standards back in the spotlight, and has put manufacturers on high alert. With consumer groups and regulators keeping a watchful eye on the situation, even very localised problems may lead to a company recalling whole batches just to be on the safe side.”

UK recalls of goods made in China represented more than half (54%) of all consumer recalls. RPC says that the comparatively low production standards of some Chinese goods entering the UK market continue to be a major trigger of health and safety alerts.

“Despite China’s continued efforts to improve safety standards, the huge proportion of recalls deriving from Chinese products shows that the problem with standards in China has not gone away,” says White.

RPC began collating recall figures in 2003, when there were only 143 in the UK that year.

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