Ryan De La Rosa

PR: Cases & Problems

Dr. Ganahl
4/1/14
Crisis Response to Ecoli Outbreak in Spinach
SUMMARY
On September 12,2006, it was the first day of an association conference and a
few days before the outbreak was announced by the FDA. That day the United Fruit
and Vegetable Association and the International Fresh-Cut Produce Association
officially merged to form the UFPA. On September 13, a law firm reported that three
of its clients wanted to file a lawsuit because they became ill after eating bagged
baby spinach. The next day the FDA notified the UFPA that a consumer warning
would be sent out warning not to eat spinach. The FDA basically had to have an
industry shutdown. After this whole incident, people questioned buying canned or
frozen spinach. Tens of millions of dollars have been invested in food safety and
spinach sales havent returned to normal even after a few years.
STRENGTHS

The UFPA had a crisis team handy when the outbreak happened and they
enacted with a crisis plan. They knew how important it was to respond
quickly, so having a plan ready only helped them to get things to done more
quickly and efficiently.
Media Communication played an important role. They had over 500 media
calls, giving written statements and more details about the outbreak. This
was an effective way to spread the word to people about the spinach
outbreak because everyone watches the news. The news reports showed two
key messages: The industry was cooperating with officials and was
committed to public health.
Industry partner communications were also critical. The conference calls that
the UFPA held enabled the many industry association stakeholders to quickly
and accurately coordination information. More than 200 industry members
joined the calls to get the latest updates from scientific and communication
staff. It was good to know that everyone was beginning to know what the
problem was quickly so that actions could be taken.

WEAKNESSES

There were various communication challenges during the outbreak.
Due to the mergence of the UFPA: for the first 24 hours of the
outbreak, the staff was operating out of a hotel office, the associations
web content and management system and email exchange server
were scheduled to go down so that the two membership databases
could be merged, and their website told visitors that the sit was
under construction.
There was a product recall for fresh spinach that hadnt been used by
a specific date. The FDA warned customers not to eat fresh spinach
until further notice. This caused confusion and questioning for
customers on whether on not to buy any kind of spinach. Due to this
spinach sales havent returned to normal in over two years.
The UFPA contacted three primary industry associations. The UFPA
wanted to hold a press conference on September 15
th
so that they
could get a story on the evening news. But, the other groups wanted to
wait and hold a conference the following week. These differences
caused tension within the alliance. During a crisis situation everyone
needs to be on the same page to get things done right.

SUGGESTIONS

The UFPA and the FDA should have created social media pages
during the outbreak. With the use of a Facebook and/or Twitter
page, they could have spread the work even quicker to the public
and partner associations.
Their website was down at the beginning of the outbreak, and
shortly after they got a few pages up and running. As soon as they
heard about the outbreak, they should have created a whole new
website dedicated to letting people know about the outbreak and
what was happening.
The UFPA could have utilized a text blast alert. For example, how
Bloomsburg sends text alerts to inform students on things
happening on campus. The FDA could have send out text alerts to
everyone to inform them not to purchase spinach and information
about the outbreak.