Focus on: Food safety

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Housekeeping

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 Peter Bracher

Around the middle of the last century I was the youngest Chief Environmental Health
Officer in the UK

It’s been a roller-coaster of jobs, companies and countries since then, but my training as an
EHO and commitment to customer safety was always at the core of my work.

At Tesco I set up the original food safety team before moving to New Store Opening and
then to a PR role where I established their International Corporate Affairs teams in Central
Europe and Asia. Moving to Walmart I managed safety, compliance and PR for ASDA.

In India I helped to establish Reliance as the fastest growing retailer in the world, then in
Thailand I set up the Asia-Pacific operations for NSF International.

Now working with Supply Chain In-Sites (SCI) in the UK and TEAM Public Health Ltd in
Thailand.
 Crisis
Management
How to always be prepared

The young Merlin reading his prophecies to King Vortigern in Geoffrey

Quality, Value, Service & Integrity. of Monmouth's Prophetiae Merlini (c. 1260)www.highfieldqualifications.com
What’s Merlin got to do with
Crisis Management

• In the 1938 novel by T.H White, The Sword in the Stone

– Merlin lives his life backwards, starting as a wise old sage with
boundless knowledge of future events
• Imagine we could do the same, and we’re sitting in the ‘post-mortem’
meeting after your company has been through the worst crisis in its
history
• We listen to the list of learnings from this corporate disaster that
wiped millions off the share price overnight ……..
Notes from crisis review
meeting • It was unfortunate that the
fatal listeria outbreak
originated from our
Liverpool operations, and
the investigating officers
finding child labour at the
site was not helpful, while
company sponsorship for
Manchester United added to
the issues.

• However, there were also

multiple issues with our
crisis management response
as listed on the next slide
Notes from crisis review meeting  Emergency contact details were
initially unavailable as the issue
What went wrong: occurred on a Friday evening
 Contact details were out of date,
with everyone on the list having
been laid off after the
Government COVID subsidies
ended
 It took us four days to gather the
essential information
 It took three days to arrange a
suitable Testing laboratory
 Coordination of the crisis
management team was poor
 No authorized and trained
company spokes-person
 Initial press statement created
negative backlash
 Our CEO saying “I’d like my life
back” was unfortunate
 Notes from crisis review meeting
Actions:
 Update the emergency contact list
 Specify the Crisis Management Lead and a Reserve Lead
 Have a named role with specific responsibility to maintain the list
 Publish the list on the company intranet to make it available out of hours
 Provide media training to two managers and authorise them as company
spokes-persons. Inform all other managers that they are NOT authorised
to speak on behalf of the company
 Arrange an authorised testing lab and independent technical consultant
 Prepared model press holding statements
 Run quarterly mock recall exercises
Example holding statement

“The safety of our customers is our primary responsibility, we are

working closely with [add name of local authority, food enforcement
agency, independent food safety organization] to investigate the issue
and we will be taking all action necessary to remove any risks to health
and safety”
Do NOT say “out of an abundance of caution …..” Nobody speaks like
that in real life, and Boeing have made this tired, old phrase
meaningless after using it when they grounded the 737 Max after two
airliners crashed killing 346 people.
Notes from crisis review meeting

Now armed with this information, you revise and update your Crisis
Management plan

When the crisis occurs, you receive thanks from the Chairman for
your excellent planning, plus a promotion and a huge bonus

Unfortunately we have to live our lives forwards – but every crisis

I’ve been involved in as a consultant had most of these failings – so
we don’t need to be Merlin to have a good Crisis Management Plan
Any questions?

NEXT
Food Safety Forum

Our Food Safety Forum is a LinkedIn group designed solely for the purpose of
sharing knowledge and supporting each other to improve food safety.
There are no costs involved and you can use it simply for reference, to support
your training or as a discussion platform. Our aim is to make this the leading
discussion platform for trainers, professionals and anyone with an interest in food
safety.
Continue the conversation after the webinar in the Highfield Food Safety Forum on
LinkedIn. Please click here to become a member.
 Thank you
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Comfort Break