Muddled communication

Tetra Pak is a company that creates packages for liquid food. Tetra Pak worked together with Nestlé. In 2005 both companies had to face a crisis because of the fabric isopropylthioxanthane (ITX). ITX is an ink used to print the labels on liquid milk cartons. In 2005 this ink was found in infant milk in Italy. Nestlé recalled the milk from a certain region in Italy, the products were removed from store shelves. The whole procedure was not published. On November 9th two million liters of milk were seized by Italian authorities.

It is clear what anger will be in public when this problem will be in the media. Nestlé should have acted quickly and at least they should have made it public in Italy immediately, but the media published it before them. A problem was that the case was known in September and Nestlé acted first in November! It is known that in crises where children can be affected or human beings in general the emotional stage of anger can be very enormous, so it is a duty to communicate truthful and direct. It was a huge mistake that Nestlé did not do that.

In this crisis different organizations communicated against, about, and with each other. The Italian Health Ministery, Nestlé, Tetra Pak and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). This process is called Rhetorical Arena. Tetra Pak and Nestlé mentioned that ITX was not harmful according to a Statement from the EFSA “[…] it is not likely to present a health risk at the levels reported.“

Meanwhile, Nestlé communicated against the Italien Health Ministery. Nestlé said the Italian Government was creating an unnecessary uproar, “It’s nothing. It’s a storm in a teacup. There is no risk to safety”. The debate between Nestlé and the Italian Government developed in a not serious manner, when the Health Minister Francesco Storace talked about Nestlé CEO Brabeck-Lernathe and accused him of lying.
Then the EFSA caused confusion when they said they were not claiming that ITX was safe, only that the agency had not yet fully assessed the risk of ITX. They gave the advice with respect to possible health risk associated with ITX in April 2006! The communication between the organizations went obviously really heated and muddled and went over months!