To recall a product

Question

I work at a supermarket. Today they had a recall on the chocolate cakes in our bakery. I looked up recall of products in the dictionary. It uses "retirar" which is a call back of faulty goods at the market. So how does one say:

There was a recall on the chocolate cakes in the bakery.

Tuvieron que retirar los pasteles de chocolate en la panaderia.

Answer 1

My take would be "Hubo un retiro de los pasteles de chocolate en la panadería". Of course that could be wrong. Most of the time there is a similar noun form to the verb form. IE luchar = lucha. Lorrar = lloro.

Edit: Changed Había to hubo to reflect one time event instead of previously listed reoccuring event as indicted by había.

Edit 2: I am unsure between hubo and había here. I believe if the recall is ongoing then había is more correct, they announced a recall and the recall is still ongoing - había, but if the recall was announced and recalled and resolved then hubo would be used. Native speakers would be appreciated to chime in on whether they think hubo or había is better.

Answer 2

"Había" should only be used if you want to link than event to another event:

• Había un retiro de pasteles de chocolate cuando yo llegué a escoger uno.
• Había un retiro de pasteles de chocolate mientras hablábamos por teléfono.
• Había un retiro de pasteles de chocolate y yo ya había tomado uno por error.

If the recall is still ongoing, then you should use present tense:

• Hay un retiro de pasteles de chocolate en este momento/el día de hoy/etc.

Great explanation! Thanks for the help. - kmeza, Jul 24, 2010

Answer 3

You can say:"

• Se tuvieron que retirar los pasteles de chocolate...
• Se retiraron los pasteles de chocolate...

Había un retiro de los pasteles de chocolate en la panadería.

Correct form:

Hubo un retiro de los pasteles de chocolate en la panadería

Great answers. Thank you. - kmeza, Jul 24, 2010