Why does the food industry always seem to find itself on the back foot when a labeling/safety/ scare hits the headlines?
Finally we attended a lively panel debate on risk management with experts from the PR & communications field (Ketchum), industry (Cargill), and the legal trade (law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius) covering everything from the debate over GM crops to natural claims, lean-finely-textured-beef (aka 'pink slime') and FSMA.
You can read a full account of the debate on our site next week, but here are some tips from the speakers:
1 - Be proactive. Get ready for FSMA now, don't wait for the final regs to come out. "Set a goal of food safety and let the rules catch up with you, not the other way around..."
2 - Think b2c as well as b2b. Remember that if you are the subject of an FDA warning letter - or a 483 notice, you need to consider your b2c as well as your b2b communications strategy. So be prepared for questions from the media and consumers as well as your trading partners.
3 - Be transparent. Engage with the media, mommy bloggers and Oprah. Invite people into your plants, give them the facts, and let them decide. The conversation is happening with or without you, so try to engage.
4 - Step back. Maybe some of your critics are ill-informed, emotional and ignorant, but treating them with contempt won't help your cause. Start with where consumers are, listen to their concerns and acknowledge them.
5 - Joined-up thinking: Are your marketing messages sending out conflicting messages to the public? Promoting 'clean-label' ingredients is all very well, but are terms like this - which will hit consumer and media discourse even if you think they are just b2b terms of reference - really helpful? Are the rest of your ingredients really 'dirty' by implication?
Click here to see our round up of day one of the show.
Click here to see our round up of day three at the show.
