Protect Your Brand with Proactive Awareness, Preparation, and Action

In practice, food quality and food safety are functions that should be based on ongoing, proactive processes rather than sudden, reactive incidents. However, in today’s fast-moving world, timely, focused reaction can be essential to protecting a food company’s brand.

Take, for example, Japan’s recent earthquake/tsunami-caused nuclear crisis and the world’s reaction related to the potential impact on safety of its exported foods. Had the disaster occurred five or ten years ago, there would probably have been some federal agency focus on food safety, as there was with Chernobyl in 1993, however it is unlikely that global attention would have borne any resemblance to the food safety concerns and questions we’ve seen raised since March. The same is true of recalls from peanuts to spinach to beef.

In addition, these reactions are not simply investigative government follow-up, but can involve immediate questions from consumers and the media, broadcast to all with a few clicks of a keypad. As a result, this can be quickly followed by questions from direct customers, investors and stockholders—then on upstream in the supply chain to domestic and international suppliers.

Thus, whether or not your product is sourced from a crisis location or contains a recalled ingredient, you must be prepared to proactively address any and every crisis or product incident. It is business critical to be aware of and knowledgeable about emerging issues and trends, know if there is or will be any implications to your product or processes, then get out in front of these as quickly as possible.

At McCormick, we are on high alert. Because we are international, our people around the globe are continually scanning market issues, news items, and federal alerts for anything, anywhere that has any potential of impacting us. Any emerging or actual issue is brought to the attention of and immediately investigated by our corporate Emerging Issues Working group.

One example of this is the melamine contamination of milk in China. In the past, we may have waited to see if anyone would ask us if it impacted McCormick products, but today we don’t wait. We source several thousand ingredients from around the globe, so we want to know of any impact before we get questions.

In this case, because some McCormick products do use milk powder, we immediately investigated our sources. Within 48 hours, we were able to ascertain that, while we use Chinese milk powder in products manufactured and distributed in China, we do not use it in any products distributed outside that country.

From that investigation, we formulated and distributed a statement explaining that fact. In a case where we would have used an affected ingredient, we would distribute a statement explaining what we are doing in response.

McCormick quality assurance and supply information was also proactively developed for use as needed after the Japan crisis. We prepared a “Statement Regarding Impact of Japanese Quake/Radiation on Food Supply” explaining:

“In the aftermath of the tragedy in Japan, McCormick wants its customers to know that our existing inventory of ingredients sourced from Japan arrived prior to the earthquake. To date, we have identified 90 ingredients that are sourced from Japan, primarily flavors and chemicals as well as some other ingredients such as Wasabi powder. As we continue to rigorously review our ingredient supply, the number of total ingredients may increase slightly. McCormick and our suppliers have already identified alternative sources for some ingredients. Additionally, the U.S. and Canadian governments have heightened import controls on products from the affected region. These actions prevent future supply from coming into the U.S. without documented proof of origin or testing. As part of our constant commitment to deliver safe ingredients, we will monitor the situation and take any additional action necessary.”

The statement also included points of fact regarding activities being conducted by U.S. and international governments and agencies to monitor for and prevent distribution of contaminated foods, to ensure the ongoing safety of the food supply chain.

Being proactive can also be beneficial when facing an issue that may not be a real food safety situation. At one of our operating units outside of the U.S., a third party claimed to have tested a product and found a food ingredient that was permitted in other countries, but not that country. The third party claimed to have pulled the product from the retail shelf, and obtained a positive result through an outside laboratory. We knew this was impossible since we had been testing and confirming the absence of this ingredient for years.

In this case, we learned of the issue because of a courtesy call from the newspaper prior to publication. We were able show data disproving the third party testing claim and indicate the testing was performed at a non-approved laboratory, and the newspaper did include our comment in the article. However, we never could get an acknowledgement of our facts from the third party itself. So to further ensure against repercussions or brand damage, we also initiated communication with the regulatory agencies, providing a statement showing our test results and data that the product was in full compliance to law.

The age-old Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared,” is just as applicable to food companies as it is to the Scouts. Although it may not be always possible, you can increase your brand protection by implementing a plan of awareness, preparation, and action. Know what is happening across the food system. Take the initiative to gather the facts. Then develop and distribute your statement—before you start getting questions.