Make or Break: Managing the Media’s Role in Food Recalls

In a recall crisis, the media can be your greatest ally or your worst enemy – it all comes down to how you manage the message. With food recalls at a five year high, there’s (understandably!) increased consumer demand for real-time information about these incidents.

The media can be incredibly valuable in distributing updates to the public and other key stakeholders, but if the information they have is inaccurate or sensationalized, it’s not helpful in protecting public health. It’s important for food companies across the supply chain – from the farms that grow the food to the restaurants that serve it – to have good communication strategies that will keep the public safe and manage brand reputation both during and after an incident.  

The Importance of the Media’s RoleAs we recently saw with the large, multi-state onion recall that impacted restaurants in at least 13 states, the media can rapidly spread recall news to a wide audience. In this case, the onion…