Sanitarium Health Food Contamination Threat

Sanitarium Health Food Company received a letter threatening contamination of its 'liquid products' on the morning of Monday, 29 June 1998. It was, in the words of CEO Robert Smith, "every food company's worst nightmare".

Fortunately, Sanitarium had a crisis management plan in place. Within an hour its Emergency Response Team was meeting and making decisions. The ERT comprised five senior managers - the CEO, Chief Operating Officer, General Manager-Sales & Marketing, General Manager-Technical Services and Public Relations Manager. ERT meetings were also attended by two crisis management experts from The Rowland Company, Sanitarium's public relations consultancy.

The first task was to establish the facts and to seek advice from the Police and Medical authorities. Although expert advice was that the risk was remote, the ERT decided that consumer safety had to be the number one priority. The Company therefore instituted an immediate national recall of all its beverage products - So Good, Up&Go and Fruit Juices - from supermarket shelves.

The first 24 hours of the crisis were spent making key decisions and organising communications to staff, retailers, other business partners and the public (via the media). The response from the trade was prompt and efficient with the major supermarket chains completing the recall within hours of being notified.

Sanitarium's CEO travelled from the Company's headquarters in Berkeley Vale, Central Coast to Sydney to handle media interviews. The story was the lead item on TV news in the evening and there was heavy print and radio coverage for the next few days. In addition to all the editorial coverage, product recall advertisements were placed in the major metropolitan newspapers.

According to tracking research 80 per cent of Australians were aware of the recall by the end of the first week. The consumer hotline received 12,000 enquires, necessitating an overflow facility with an external service provider.

After the initial public announcement the ERT continued to meet daily to share information such as staff, trade and consumer feedback, media updates, further updates from the police, to make decisions and to approve further communications.

The focus of attention moved to what Sanitarium was doing to check its products and when they would return. This was of particular concern to many lactose intolerant people who rely on dairy alternatives such as So Good, the leading brand of soy milk in Australia.

An interim media announcement was made to communicate that Sanitarium was conducting an exhaustive inspection and testing process, involving over 300,000 recalled items which would then be destroyed. Only then would the Company be prepared to bring its products back to supermarket shelves.

The ERT had also formed a special Back to Market team to ensure a successful return of the beverage products to supermarket shelves, dealing with manufacturing, logistics, distribution, trade and customer information.

An integrated communications campaign was developed, including a series of TV and press ads featuring CEO Robert Smith who had been the public face of the Company throughout the crisis. And on 17 July a media conference was held to announce the return of Sanitarium beverages to supermarket shelves.