BE PREPARED: Put yourself in the consumer's position when addressing food-safety concerns, advises a communications expert

摘要

Food-safety incidents, like fires, are never planned or expected. But being prepared could mean the difference between containing an incident to be a minor inconvenience or watching it escalate into a major sales disruption. Marilyn Dolan, with firsthand experience in the recent spinach food-illness outbreak, knows what works when communicating with the media and public about food safety. She recently brought that knowledge to Ellensburg, Washington, where she shared crisis control and management tips with the Pacific Northwest Food Safety Committee, a newly formed, proactive group of tree fruit shippers in Washington and Oregon who want to be prepared for the region's next crisis.