Proactive Customer Education

Social media has changed the landscape of communication. Bloggers, Tweeters, and YouTubers post about food, where it comes from, how it is produced, what is safe and unsafe, what should and should not be eaten. These posts may be fact or fiction, truth or opinion, but they are being voraciously consumed by the public because there is a hunger for this knowledge.

According to the 2014 Sullivan Higdon & Sink FoodThink report, “Emerging Faith in Food Production”:

• 67% of consumers think it is important to understand how their food is produced.
• 65% want to know more about where their food comes from.
• 66% would like to see the food industry take more action in educating people on how food is produced.
   

Additionally, 76% of the respondents rated their knowledge of food production as less than “good.” But probably the most telling statistics are those rating the trustworthiness of sources of information. Friends and family were rated highest at 57%, with food companies/manufacturers (31%) and mass media/news organizations (30%) almost neck and neck, and bloggers/social media (25%) only slightly below that. Millennials were more likely than the overall population to trust bloggers and social media.

According to the report, food manufacturers are not considered to be highly trustworthy sources of information, but is this because the information provided is not trusted ... or because there is simply little to no information generated by manufacturers? With only 30% of respondents feeling that food companies are transparent about production practices, it seems likely that a lack of information is a primary reason.

The good news of the report is that “Americans are open to efforts by the food industry aimed at building trust.” In fact, 81% of Americans were open to the food industry using one or more of the following to build trust:

1. Better labeling of key production and nutritional information.
2. Public tours of farms and/or food production facilities.
3. Honest website answers to food production questions.
4. Company leaders appearing on a news program to explain how food is produced.

But how exactly do you do this? QA spoke with industry stakeholders to find out what is being done:
 

Egg Board:

Make it Fun & Educational

Now in its third year, the American Egg Board’s (AEB) Good Egg Project provides consumer information relative to all four methods. In a partnership with Discover Education, AEB hosts an Egg Farm-to-Table Virtual Field Trip presented live to schools around the country. This year’s field trip to Pearl Valley Farms in Illinois, was aired in almost 8,200 classrooms, resulting in viewing by more than 204,900 students and teachers. According to Discovery Education, it was the most attended field trip to date, exceeding attendance numbers of field trips such as those hosted by The Mythbusters, NASA astronauts, and Google.

In the virtual field trip, Pearl Valley Farms’ Dave and Ben Thompson and four production managers showed an egg’s journey from pullet house to egg processing to composting, talked about how they take care of the hens and the environment, and participated in a live Q&A session, answering student and teacher questions that were submitted online—for which more than 4,000 questions were received.

“Our goal is to try to humanize these people,” said AEB Vice President of Strategic Operations Mia Roberts, “to show that eggs come from real people, real farms, real animals.” The project, along with other AEB initiatives, also serves to navigate through the vast array of information and misinformation on how food gets to the table, she said. As with many meat producers, much of the misinformation that AEB attempts to counter is that of animal welfare and humane handling. Not only does opening the doors of the egg facility make production transparent, but the virtual tour also included discussion of animal welfare, explaining that a hen that is under duress will not lay eggs.

Noting this project as “the highlight of our educational year,” Roberts said the field trip was developed to address all the aspects of the new education core curriculum for grades K-5, so it fits with the teachers’ plans. At the same time, however, it provides an entertaining and intriguing way for children to learn, making the lesson fun while conveying information.

The Egg Board has plans to expand the program to the middle school and high school levels, which Roberts sees as a critical piece of the puzzle. “We have a wonderful story to tell that is steeped in science and research,” Roberts said.
 

Starbucks:

Align with a Celebrity

Taking a bit of a different approach to getting the word out, Starbucks focuses one of its key initiatives on the future of food science. Starbucks is a founding partner of Food4Thought/Feeding Tomorrow, an IFT foundation focused on encouraging student pursuit of careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), particularly that of food science.

Food science is critical to the future development of many aspects of food production, sustainability, and ensuring and improving global health and wellness. STEM helps to create the future talent for such development, said Starbucks Senior Vice President of R&D, Quality, Food Safety, and Regulatory Mary Wagner. “I think it is really important that, as industry leaders, we step up and have our own internal initiatives to ensure we are leaders in food safety.”

Feeding Tomorrow has also aligned with Girls Inc., to encourage female pursuit of STEM careers. To help spread the word, Starbucks aligned with Oprah to develop and promote Teavana Oprah Chai tea, the sales of which will benefit Girls Inc.
 

Tyson, Cargill, Kroger:

Be a BAC Fighter.

Whether you are a large or small manufacturer, you can fight bac(teria) through partnership with and/or accessing publications of the Partnership for Food Safety Education. As the “first evidence-based consumer education campaign,” the Partnership originated as a USDA program and then was incorporated as a non-profit in 2001, said Executive Director Shelley Feist.

“Communicating the value of food safety for your company from farm to fork is important because consumer perception of your company is based on the transparency of that,” Feist said. However, she understands that manufacturers are not in the business of education. That is where PFSE comes in. “A very important thing about the Partnership is that our information is based on science,” she said, adding, “Food safety isn’t used as a competitive edge or advantage. Our organization is a place where companies can come together—we are a resource that is available and free.”

Anyone can use the materials on the Partnership’s website (www.fightbac.org/). In fact, Feist encourages companies to use the materials or link to the Partnership’s site rather than spending the time to develop other materials. Companies can also get more involved in the organization, joining the “partners” of the “Partnership,” such as Tyson, Cargill, and Kroger, that contribute to its mission to improve public health and reduce foodborne illness.

As a practical aspect, Feist encourages companies to begin food safety education with their own people. “Let’s start with those in your workforce, to raise awareness and help them understand how it affects their families.” Regularly focusing on and discussing food safety topics such as handwashing, thermometer use, etc., not only increases the safety of your product but creates a spillover effect, impacting the families of your workers, and, based on the statistics cited at the beginning of this article, friends as well. “If you are really making food safety a value in your company, make every employee feel as though they’re an educator as well,” she said.

“My call to the industry would be for any company that cares about food safety to be a BAC Fighter,” Feist said. “I would love to see everyone involved in food be a part of the communication.”
 

Develop Ambassadors:

Align with Bloggers

In addition to Good Egg Project, the American Egg Board increases consumer awareness and education by working with social media to:

• Meet consumers where they are. For better or worse, social media is a prominent communication vehicle. As such, manufacturers need to use it for their own consumer education efforts. To do so, develop material that is short, sharp, and to the point.
• Develop ambassadors. There is an enormous blogger sphere out there. Do a bit of web surfing of your own, and align with those who focus on your industry segment, or the food industry as a whole. Give correct info to these people to create media; provide a constant stream of accurate news. AEB began with those who were pro-egg, or “friends of eggs,” and continues to expand its relationships each year. “Advocates and influencers are a huge way to get your message out,” Roberts said.
• Be transparent and authentic. Whether you are developing your own blogs, tweets, and/or videos or aligning with advocates and influencers, keep it honest and real.
  
   

Keep It Real.

An IFT Wellness 2014 presentation by Trevor Butterworth, editor-at-large of Stats.org, backs up AEB’s call for authenticity. Butterworth encourages companies to use the knowledge of technical and scientific experts and let them say it their way, rather than developing a public relations campaign on food safety topics. “You have to find people who can talk about them. You have to give them media training. You have to find these people, then you have to step back.

“If you don’t talk about the science of what you’re doing—or find a scientist to do it—in an informed, engaging, witty, knowledgeable way, someone else is going to take it and either use it or abuse it or ignore it,” he said. “If you don’t do anything, you only guarantee more of the same.”

The author is Editor of QA magazine. She can be reached at llupo@gie.net.