Using the FDA food enforcement database to identify CPG brands mid-recall — the exact moment a wave of deductions, returns, and retailer compliance claims hits their finance team from every direction at once.
Monitoring the FDA food enforcement database for recalls at CPG brands that sell through major retailers. A recall creates an immediate deduction and return processing crisis — every retailer portal fires at once, in different formats, with different dispute windows — at the exact moment a finance team already stretched thin has no margin for manual reconciliation.
Real CPG brands with active FDA recalls, verified against the FDA enforcement database. Each recall triggers a simultaneous wave of deductions, returns, and compliance claims from every retailer portal at once — the exact scenario Confido was built for.
Context on what actually happens to a CPG brand's financial operations in the 30–90 days following a food recall.
The average CPG brand distributing through 3–5 major retailers runs deductions as a background process: maybe 5–15% of gross sales, 1–2 people handling it manually, 30–70 day dispute cycles per claim. It is painful, but it is predictable enough to manage with a spreadsheet.
A recall destroys that predictability. In the first 30 days after a Class I or Class II recall:
1. Every retailer portal fires simultaneously — Whole Foods, Target, Amazon, Kroger, Walmart each have different deduction codes, different dispute windows, different documentation requirements for returned recalled product.
2. The deduction volume spikes 5–10x above normal baseline.
3. The same finance person managing regular deductions now has to process recall-specific return codes they have never seen before.
4. Legal and compliance teams are generating documentation requirements that may conflict with the retailer's deduction process.
5. The VP of Finance is reporting to the board on financial impact while simultaneously trying to reconcile claims coming in 5 different formats.
The FDA food enforcement database records approximately 500–1,000 food recalls per year. After filtering for branded CPG companies with major retail distribution at Confido's ICP size, 3–7 qualifying recalls per month represent companies in active financial operations crisis. Each one is a VP of Finance who has just discovered that their spreadsheet-based deductions process was not built for this.
These workflows passed theoretical evaluation and represent additional prospecting angles using publicly accessible data sources.
Monitors job postings from CPG brands for trade spend, deductions management, or CPG finance analyst roles. When a $10M–$100M CPG brand posts a job for someone to manage deductions at a $92K–$150K salary, they are implicitly advertising that their current process is manual and overwhelmed. The outreach angle: "For what you're paying this hire annually, Confido automates the same work at a fraction of the cost — and the hire can focus on strategy instead of portal reconciliation."
Tracks Series A and Series B funding rounds for CPG food, beverage, and personal care brands. Newly funded brands are entering new retail partners aggressively, which is the inflection point where deduction volume outpaces what spreadsheets can handle. A $10M raise for a natural food brand heading into Whole Foods or Target is a predictable leading indicator of deductions pain within 6–12 months.
Monitors FDA warning letters issued to food and beverage companies for Good Manufacturing Practice violations. Warning letters create a 15-business-day mandatory response window and a 6–12 month re-inspection timeline, with financial penalties and potential retailer chargebacks following from the compliance failure. Companies receiving warning letters face financial documentation requirements that often expose gaps in their deductions and trade management processes.