Government praised for crisis management of pigmeat recall

A LEADING food scientist at Kansas State University has praised Ireland’s December 2008 pigmeat recall, holding it up as a crisis management model for others to follow.

Food scientist Douglas Powell said the speed and clarity of the message to the Irish public was an example of communi-cations excellence. Professor Powell praised the media campaign, which related to the recall of Irish products from pigs who had eaten feed contaminated with dioxins, but which, nonetheless, presented no serious threat to public health.

Prof Powell said: “Consumers were so comforted by the Irish government’s explanations of the low level of risk from the contamination that many were confused as to why the pork was even recalled, and accused the government of Ireland of over-reacting.

“A media campaign is always a real win when nothing happens in terms of public outrage, but that calm response didn’t happen by accident. It took a lot of skill and a lot of people doing the right things. Sadly, we have a lot of choice when it comes to bad media campaigns, like BP in the Gulf of Mexico.

“You need good timing and clarity of message. You have to tell people everything and tell them clearly. You have to send out someone who is in a position of authority. If you don’t do that, you will risk a communication vacuum, which will probably be filled by people who don’t know what they’re talking about. If you have a message, it’s best if you’re first to send it out.”

Writing in the academic journal Public Understanding of Science, Prof Powell and his team praised the decision to clearly label those products which consumers could eat safely.

In contrast, the journal cited a Belgian case from 1999 when authorities waited five days to recall chicken and eggs in another animal feed crisis. In Belgium’s case, most EU neighbours decided to ban imports of its products.

Ireland used a three-pronged approach: Prompt communications with the public, information on real and perceived risks and control of stigma in a hazardous incident. The experts are holding up the moves as “an effective tool for future crisis managers to use in limiting the damage to industries involved in a crisis”.

A Department of Agriculture spokesperson said yesterday: “In terms of communication the Department and the FSAI followed the communication strategy used for the Foot and Mouth disease incident some years previously. In the case of the dioxin incident, the priority was public health and the protection of the reputation of Irish food products.”

In 2008, the government went public about the contamination on the same day it received positive samples and removed all pork products from slaughtered pigs from sale.

* For more: www.meatprocess. com/ Safety-Legislation/ how-to-manage-media-over-meat- contamination