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FSA on the recent horse meat incident

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This week’s guest blog is from Jane Seymour, Head of Channels at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on the recent horse meat incident

When I heard on the midnight news on 15 January that the Food Safety Authority of Ireland had found traces of horse DNA in a series of meat products, I knew we were going to be busy the next day. I don’t think anyone at the Food Standards Agency or our colleagues in Defra thought it would still be taking up a significant amount of our time a week later, let alone two months down the line.

We’ve experienced a few big incidents at the FSA but none have enveloped us so fast and comprehensively as this one. Phone lines to our helpline and press desk were overwhelmed that first day, and staff who had never answered the phone to the public before found themselves being quizzed on the finer points of DNA testing. Or whether we would like to collect and test the beefburgers they’d had in the freezer for the past year. As a result, one of earliest lessons learned from the incident would be get a clear instruction out to all staff as soon as possible, telling them what’s happening and what to do if they get a query: even if it’s just taking down names and numbers to get back to people.

It didn’t help that in England the responsibilities for each element of the issue wasn’t crystal clear. Defra ‘owns’ much of food labelling policy, and the FSA is responsible for enforcing the rules along with local authorities. Although this created some confusion early on, it did mean that in a short time, both departments’ press and digital teams were starting to work together effectively.

We both noticed, however, that although our websites’ traffic rose, it was nothing in terms of what was happening on social media. In terms of puns, this has been the incident that just kept giving: fuelling waves of Twitter jokes at every turn. In a way, this was reassuring; it meant that a significant number of people might have been irritated at having horse meat in their minced meat – but they weren’t worried about their health. However, developments meant that the scandal fuelled a range of debates: from a cultural revulsion to eating horse meat to the anti-supermarket lobby to fear of eastern European imports and so on and so on. All kept horse meat in the news and, frequently, trending.

This was the first big incident that we’d been involved in since Twitter had become a major player in the digital landscape. So, other than the constant recycling of horse puns, we had a stream of pertinent questions coming in from all and sundry. This, it must be said, was helpful as it gave us advance intelligence of what was likely to hit the press team later in the day. And it helped us in the digital team demonstrate what good monitoring could do and the goodwill engendered by a prompt response; that we needed to be involved with briefings right from the start.

But it was relentless and was challenging for our policy colleagues used to a slower clearance process than ‘now, please’. It’s easier said than done not to feel bullied by it. But having a central briefing cell responsible for coordinating and clearing responses from press, stakeholders and public helped give us a structured approach that helped enormously. I’d recommend it.

I’d also recommend having a whole bunch of supportive colleagues to give some perspective and make tea. They also serve who do the sandwich run …


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