The recent launch of jazzy new consumer networking platforms by food giants General Mills and Kraft Foods demonstrates the recognized power these online tools have in maintaining brand loyalty and in engaging consumers – especially young ones – with ideas, products, and messages. General Mills has launched an online network called Pssst... in an effort to “build stronger relationships with our consumers.” The network, which invites feedback from consumers on what they like and don’t like, ... Read More

With Melamine – the toxin at the root of last year’s pet food adulteration – back in the news, the retailers and manufacturers that will be forced to deal with just the latest China-related product safety scare should take a page from a crisis playbook classic. This week marks the 26th anniversary of the Tylenol tampering crisis. To this day, the famous 1982 incident is presented as the successful case study in how corporations should handle ... Read More

With the grandeur and pageantry of the Beijing Games in the rearview mirror, observers are once again fearing it’s back to business as usual in China. The U.S. State Department is blasting the nation’s lack of progress on human rights and environmental issues are once again in the news. Perhaps most disturbing for consumers, yet another product safety crisis of epic proportions is shaking the world’s confidence in China’s products. The news that four infants have ... Read More

Yesterday, the Yale School of Medicine released a study that once again raises questions about the safety of a chemical commonly found in everyday plastics.   The potential dangers associated with Bisphenol A, or BPA, have long been the subject of debate among regulators, scientists, consumer groups, and the manufacturers that produce nearly 7 billion pounds of BPA each year. But with the revelation that exposure to EPA-accepted levels of the chemical has caused brain function and ... Read More

Critics of the food industry, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest and The San Francisco Chronicle, are questioning the Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to allow irradiation of lettuce and spinach following devastating outbreaks of food-borne illness connected with those raw foods. The naysayers are scoffing at the idea of using irradiation, saying that it’s a distraction from what they see as the real problem – a lack of adequate resources ... Read More

Week after week the news media report on the latest medical studies that identify some new and unexpected risk to our health. Do cell phones cause brain tumors? Do overhead power lines lead to childhood leukemia? Does exposure to common chemicals increase the risk of breast cancer? We see the scary headlines, but few of us notice the inevitable follow-up stories that put these newly apprehended risks into perspective and often debunk the initial reports altogether. A ... Read More