Viewpoint: How to prepare for—and recover from—a food safety crisis

Stay calm. While it’s upsetting (and scary!) to be in a crisis situation, remain calm as you work to recover from the incident. Follow your crisis plan and communicate your key messages. Ensure that important audiences (including customers, prospects, employees, the media, vendors, health inspectors, etc.) recognize how hard you’re working to recover from the incident and prevent similar situations in the future.

Create honest, authentic and apologetic messaging. This will, of course, need to meet the specifics of the particular situation. Regardless of what happened, describe the situation honestly, and explain the plan you’ve developed to move forward. Transparency is important, otherwise the general public will lose confidence and trust.

Form a crisis management team. The team could include company leadership, a corporate attorney, food safety team, crisis management consultant, a trained media spokesperson and applicable government agencies. Document each teammate’s roles and responsibilities.

Appoint a media spokesperson. When facing a serious crisis, your CEO should be the spokesperson. The public wants the head of the company to speak authoritatively about the incident and the concrete plans to resolve the problem. Practice your messages before talking to media (or the public). Anticipate the most challenging questions you may receive, and decide how to respond professionally, politely and non-defensively. 

Work cooperatively with the media. It’s in your best interest to be honest, straightforward and transparent with the media. Saying “no comment” makes it look like you have something to hide, and can further erode the public perception of your company. If there was a breakdown in your process, identify it, whether you received tainted merchandise from a vendor or experienced a kitchen error. Explain the concrete steps you’re implementing to fix the situation and prevent a reoccurrence (e.g., selecting different vendors, retraining your staff, adjusting your food allergy protocols, implementing a new software program, etc.). 

Change vendors, if necessary. Did a vendor mislabel ingredients, causing an allergic reaction in one of your guests? Did a vendor sell you tainted products? Change vendors, and be clear in your communications (to media, via social media platforms, etc.) that you’ve identified the vendor as the source of the problem, and have cut ties to them to eliminate similar events in the future.

Thank the responders that helped. Perhaps your crisis was a customer health scare, an electrical fire in your kitchen or a power outage. Publicly thank emergency workers that helped defuse the situation.

Train (or retrain) your staff on food safety protocols. Be certain that everyone is clear on your food safety procedures (e.g., preventing cross-contamination, keeping the equipment sanitary, preparing allergy-friendly meals, etc.) to avoid future incidents.Use social media wisely. Monitor social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) and respond to negative and/or erroneous comments. Messages on social media (as well as in real life) should always be positive, professional and honest. Don’t get defensive or get sucked into toxic, negative message chains. 

Debrief after the crisis is over. Get the crisis management team together and debrief. Review your plan and see if there is any room for improvement for future preparedness.