ICMSA should stop digging, burger mess is bad enough

The reputation of the Irish food industry has been severely undermined across the world after it has been disclosed by Tesco on Jan 30 that the adulteration of frozen hamburgers is attributable to the use of meat (not merely meat additives) that did not come from a list of approved suppliers.

The ICMSA promptly responded to this debacle by shooting the messenger, branding the supermarket chains, who have abandoned the suppliers of the offending products which sundered public trust as ‘hypocritical and disingenuous’. This is a pathetic and risible response that reflects scant understanding of the underlying issue of betrayed consumer trust; the dynamics of reputational risk; the impact of public sentiment and little concern for legitimacy of consumer interests.

Is the ICMSA advocating that in the quest to recover consumer trust, Irish suppliers should only seek to trade with those the ICMSA deems not to be ‘hypocritical or disingenuous’, or has the association some other strategy to introduce intellectual leadership and credibility to this chaotic self–inflicted mess? Perhaps the association might begin by heeding the adage ‘when in a dark, dismal hole, don’t keep digging’!