In July, the FDA stunned the food industry and consumers when the agency protected the name of a sugar supplier at the heart of a massive recall. That recall has continued to expand, but the FDA remains tightlipped on the subject.
Transparency has been at the heart of many major company announcements lately, fromGMO ingredient labelingto动物福利实践。而且，如果公司应该有任何透明的东西，那么它的产品回忆起，可能导致病人的消费者，销售失去和声誉受损。
神秘的糖召回时间表
在标准召回程序中，FDA或制造商本身发布了有关受污染产品的详细信息，从品牌到批量数。但是，在最近的糖召回案件中，糖供应商和FDA都没有确定原始来源。
In July, ConAgra recalled its P.F. Chang’s brand frozen chicken and beef entree products — first nearly 4,000 pounds, then almost两周后另外192,000磅。一名员工在加工过程中观察到金属碎片，同时将糖从供应商分配到主菜的酱汁中。
PF常回忆起前clusive to frozen meal products sold by ConAgra & in no way affects PF Chang's restaurantspic.twitter.com/ircrcdqj14
— FDA FOOD (@FDAfood)2016年7月21日
几天后，零售商Weis Markets recalled about 30 bakery products, also due to potential metal fragments in the sugar from an unnamed supplier. Both ConAgra and Weis’ recall notices identified the metal fragments as in the same size range, which suggested the sugar from both recalls came from the same supplier.
Still,neither the sugar supplier nor the FDA came forward带有生产者的名字。该机构在7月底表示，它直接与公司合作，但不会透露其名称，citing federal laws protecting corporate confidentiality。
Days later, a Shoprite employeenoticed metal fragments in the retailer’s cookies, which individual stores bake onsite using premixed ingredients. A Shoprite spokesperson told Food Safety News that she was not aware of the sugar recall. Shoprite thenexpanded the recallabout two weeks later to include another more than two dozen varieties of the store’s cookies.
How to, versus how not to, handle a recall
While these third-party retailers and manufacturers have promptly notified the FDA and consumers about their contaminated products, the supplier has not been revealed. The similarities among the recalls suggest that supplier could be the same.
This raises concerns about other products that employees or consumers have yet to discover are also contaminated. As in the Shoprite case, manufacturers and retailers may not realize it is their sugar supplier that produced the problematic ingredient. Yet their own brands and company reputation could take a hit in the interim — all due to a lack of transparency further down their supply chain.
但是，在Stericycle的营销，内部销售和商业业务的高级副总裁Kevin Pollack保证，即使召回很大，也可以从一开始就拥有完全透明度的制造商在长期和短期内通常会经历更好的结果。
“Generally for recalls channeled well, consumers can be quite forgiving, and you'll see the sales back bounce relatively quickly,” said Pollack. “If they feel like it was handled poorly, then that can extend for quite a long time as consumers decide to pursue other alternatives.”
由于确切的糖供应商和批次数量仍然是公众未知的，因此制造商或消费者很难知道此召回是否已经结束。这种秘密性可能标志着大规模召回，可能会关闭公司的生产。这可能就是为什么供应商根据公司机密法要求进行保护的原因。
But this company’s executives might have alleviated the outcome they’re concerned about simply by being more transparent. Pollack recommends sharing information about what happened, what products the recall impacts and what the company is doing to remedy the situation.
“The characteristics of a recall handled well are going to be very open and transparent with the consumers and with the public, to take any challenge head on and be very forthright,” said Pollack.
What to do when recalls don’t seem to end
General Mills is one of the latest companies to know firsthandhow unwieldy recalls can be随着时间的推移。它始于5月下旬a recall of its own flour brands因为可能的大肠杆菌污染。此后，召回已扩展到其他公司其他国家and更多的生产日期because other brands used the flour in their own products. Consumers have fallen ill after eating raw cookie dough made from contaminated raw flour, though baking usually kills the bacteria.
更多的大肠杆菌病例促使一般磨坊粉回忆膨胀 -https://t.co/2f6od9kvvwhttps://t.co/dGdPsnvfy1#ecoli
- e Coli（@dailyecolinews）August 15, 2016
“如果有任何认为可能有其他potential affected products, is to just take as much action as early as possible, in order to get out ahead of it,” said Pollack. “Then to work very aggressively and very quickly to manage that problem, communicate with consumers, get that product pulled from the shelves and demonstrate that the problem has in fact been fixed and been identified.”
尽管现在有recalled 45 million pounds of its flour，约占其年产量的2％。公司有launched a dedicated websitewith links to media releases and blog posts detailing its work with the FDA to ameliorate the situation. The site also lists all affected brands with their photos and identification information, including UPC codes and better-if-used-by dates involved in the recalls.
“By doing that in a very open and transparent way, very quickly, and taking a very aggressive approach to identifying and fixing the problem, consumers will continue to have trust in that brand and in that company,” said Pollack. “They can see the level of diligence that's being provided by the management to try to address the problem.”
透明度可以在召回后保持品牌的声誉吗？
现在判断该召回是否会影响通用磨坊的面粉销售额为时过早。而且，在不了解受污染批处理的供应商或范围的情况下，持续的糖召回效果更加不透明。
Eventually, these companies will release more information surrounding the recalls and the earnings reports that follow. Once they do, manufacturers may be able to see a clear comparison of just how much transparency can influence consumer perceptions and product sales following major recalls.
Pollack说：“（结果）根据召回方式而有所不同。”“我们已经查看了一些市场数据，我们已经看到某些公司在四分之一之内就销售反弹了，并且基于消费者认为召回的处理不佳，因此重回正轨。他们觉得它的解决方案非常好。该公司最重要的是，他们仍然信任该公司，并重视其提供的产品。”
This sugar supplier could be under the protection of corporate confidentiality laws for now. But when its name and the extent of this recall eventually surface, the company could be worse off than if it had handled the recall differently from the outset.
Pollack说：“在其他情况下，如果（消费者）觉得（召回）处理不佳，那么（影响）可能会延伸到多个季度甚至几年。”“然后，有些产品可能永远不会回来，具体取决于其严重性。它可能会在损失的销售中造成足够的损害，直到公司努力康复。”
