To Avoid PR & legal disaster, better to face truth sooner than later

As a result of peanut butter tainted with salmonella many people got very sick and some died. Sadly, many more people are likely to get sick just following the story.

It was in September of 2008 that the first few cases of the latest salmonella food poisoning episode were being reported by clinics and hospitals. News of the outbreak started slowly but quickly exploded across the country. By late December there were over 400 reported cases in 43 states and at least four related deaths.

In early January, thanks to the Minnesota Department of Health, it was determined that the source of the salmonella was peanut butter.

On January 12, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed that the salmonella outbreak was indeed caused by contaminated peanut butter paste manufactured in a Georgia plant owned by Peanut Corporation of America (PCA).

On January 13, Peanut Corporation of America’s public relations people went into action. A press release expressed the company’s “…deep regret that this has happened.” And further, that “out of an abundance of caution, we are voluntarily withdrawing this product and contacting our customers.” To be sure, the Peanut Corporation was “taking these actions with the safety of our consumers as our first priority.”

On their January 28 evening newscast, WSB TV in Atlanta first reported that FDA documents the TV station had obtained indicated that PCA officials knew their peanut butter contained salmonella bacteria and shipped it anyway. The PCA had no comment.

By the last week in January, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of cases had gone to 600 and at least nine people were dead as a result of the salmonella bacteria contained products using PCA’s peanut paste.

The following week, a congressional committee released documents that appeared to confirm reports that PCA officials knew of at least 12 findings of salmonella bacteria found in their peanut butter in 2007 and 2008, but still urged employees to move the product out to its customers.

Today, the list of recalled products at risk of containing the salmonella infected peanut butter is over 2000 items and the cost to corporations and retailers of recall expense and future lost sales is likely to reach billions. Given the impact of this crisis, businesses are expected to spend hundreds of millions to rebuild trust and reassure customers of the safety of peanut based products.

Anticipating a huge decline in demand for peanut butter products, peanut farmers are distressed and already planning to cut back the number of acres they will plant this spring.

As public relations professionals with combined experience of over 75 years, we understand that a lot went wrong here. As a result, Congress will demand more frequent FDA inspections and seek tighter controls, and as Senator Amy Klobuchar recently suggested, prosecutors are likely to bring criminal charges against responsible individuals.

But beyond regulatory and legal aspects, one wonders how a company could ever get to a point where their entire enterprise was put at such risk. For sure, accidents can happen, but more than anything, like steroids in baseball and the chaos on Wall Street, this is a case of a complete lack of corporate governance and responsibility.

When it comes to managing against loss of reputation and legal liability in a crisis, the best and most effective measure is the truth. But the timing and totality of the truth matters most. Quality companies know that the value of public relations is both before and after a crisis. A company that works with professionals to build internal corporate values and a strong culture of moral responsibility will not only know the right time to nip a crisis in the bud, but will also have a well-built platform from which to communicate its message.

Unfortunately for the Peanut Company of America, their timing was two years off and their platform shaky.

[Kathy Tunheim is president and CEO of the Bloomington-based public relations firm Tunheim Partners and is a contributing author of Crisis Communication/practical PR strategies for reputation management and company survival. John Wodele is a St. Paul based communications consultant who has a professional association with Tunhiem Partners.]


Published 2/23/09, StarTribune