Baking & Snack - October 2010 - 42

43
conducted a voluntary recall of
donuts. Upon discovering the labeling error, the company enacted its
crisis recall program to inform its
45 distributors and 7,000 stores of
the mistake.
Within two days, Kinnikinnick
also contacted all consumers who
purchased the donuts by phone
and offered refunds. While only
two of them asked for refunds, the
company gained a loyal group of
consumers. "We've worked hard to
be known as a safe company, and I
believe if you're honest and show
how you will rectify the situation,
most will understand," said Jerry Bigam, president, Kinnikinnick Foods.
Today the company boasts a more
sophisticated crisis management
plan, which includes a stringent commitment to keeping contaminants out
of its dedicated gluten- and nut-free
plants and an active communications
component that includes social media. Each shipment of ingredients is
tested upon reaching the facility, and
the company is particularly selective
in its supply chain partners. While
many food safety problems won't
show up for days, gluten contamination is typically discovered by consumers within minutes to an hour after eating. "Celiacs will know if there's
a major issue that needs an immediate response," Mr. Bigam said. "Other
contaminants, unfortunately, take
more time to notice."
WHERE TO BEGIN? So, what if you
can't directly pinpoint where the
issue originated? That often happens
when companies don't have good
recordkeeping, don't know their
supply chain or don't have a solid
crisis management plan in play.
RQA, Inc., a consulting firm comprised of food industry veterans
and food safety professionals, supplies technical, crisis management
and product retrieval expertise for
companies in recall situations. When
creating a crisis management plan,
RQA encourages companies to iden-

tify a crisis team consisting of crossfunctional representation who can
collectively assess and implement the
crisis plan when the need arises. Crisis team members include leadership
from the following areas: food safety

and quality, distribution and warehouse management, legal, consumer
affairs and public relations, according
to Melanie Neumann, Esq., vice-president crisis management and general
counsel, RQA, Inc., Darien, IL.

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