How Produce Industry Rebuilds Trust After Cyclospora Outbreaks
Crisis communication strategist Amy Philpott outlines why outdated response playbooks fail and how targeted messaging restores credibility.
In a typical food safety outbreak, a consumer response goes from “What’s happening?” to “What do I do to protect myself and my family?” to “Who is to blame?” and then “What is being done to prevent this from happening again?” says Amy Philpott, a public relations and crisis communication expert specializing in the food, agriculture and fresh produce industries.
But Philpott says that’s not happening in the recent cyclospora food safety outbreak, as there are few outbreaks in different stages. Because there are different timelines, consumers need different information — and that has made the response playbook almost obsolete.
“Consumers are asking all of these questions at the same time,” she says. “We’ve lost any sort of linear flow that we normally have, and that’s making it challenging.”
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