Jeanne,

Although I am not currently feeding my friend Menu Foods products, in the past my cats have received some of their foods. Why are some businesses so afraid to admit error, do everything possible to assist customers when errors occur and assure customers everything possible will be done to prevent a particular mistake again? Especially when a mistake results in making consumers sick, or in this case, the mistake proves deadly.

Let all fingers point in two directions: Legal Departments and outsourced legal adivice, and a litgious society gone wild, motivating some businesses to be overly cautios and less open, a mistake in my mind.

Jeanne,

You are soooo right in everything you said in this post. A couple of days ago, a milk supplier, Guida's here in Connecticut, had a bad situation arise when some cleaning solution found its way into low fat chocolate milk cartons delivered to schools. A few children became nauseous and had burning throats. The schools and Guida took immediate action, and the manufacturer took complete ownership of the problem, pinpointed the cause and vowed to correct it. To be safe, all the milk shipped to school cafeterias was recalled. The company apologized immediately and profusely. End result: everyone agreed from state inspectors to the schools and parents of school-aged children that Guida is a quality brand and they do not anticipate any further problems.

Moral of story: a truly great brand owns the good with the bad and works to keep trust with its customers by admitting its mistakes, and quickly correcting them. Without customer trust, brands erode very quickly and die. Many of us don't see how Menu Foods can rebound from this gaffe; it's too serious. We'll have to wait and see.

I'm not a pet owner, but dang...

Even if they're simply playing CYA, they're doing a poor job of that by not having a news ticker or something and not showing how they're cooperating and coordinating with the authorities who're working towards a solution when they can't-- even assuming it's not they're fault.

The fact that today, I could learn about FDA's expanded recall to dry dog food due to traces of melamine from electronic media or government sources quicker than the company I should be turning to is ridiculous, frightening, and disheartening for everyone affected.

And contrast this with the Pedigree ads that are running that focus on adopting dogs, and show the dogs first at the pound, then the latest one shows one lucky dog going home to live with his new family. Wonder how many customers of Menu Foods will switch to Pedigree based just on those ads?

All about looking at your product from the customer's point of view, not yours.

But Menu Foods is not a true consumer brand. It's a manufacturer for major brands (including WalMart's Ol' Roy, Procter & Gamble's Eukanuba and PetSmart's house label). I agree that Menu Foods' response has been inept but since they weren't previously accustomed to consumer communications, that might be understandable. What's absolutely inexcusable is the silence from these well-known pet care brands. From what I've seen, they have not stepped up at all.

Irene:

You bring up a good point about the brands that Menu is creating their dog food for. Where are THEY?

However, I don't cut Menu any slack for acting slowly simply because they aren't a consumer brand. Doesn't cut it.

Stepping up, taking accountability and explaining the 'why' and what will be done immediately is the only way to go for these brands who take a misstep. Customers (as humans) get that mistakes happen - but forgiveness won't kick-in if the company doesn't step up.

Think about the fact that even after all these years and the human deaths that occured, Tylenol is considered one of the best in this arena. Sad that there are not more cases that have followed suit - as we are seeing in spades here!

Jeanne

What is interesting, from a marketing perspective, is the recall involves some high-end, higer-priced brands like Iams and Eukanuba that have build their positioning on the best ingredients. Can't help but wonder how these brands especially will rebuild customer trust.

I agree, Toby. The most doggish "dog people" have known that the supposed high-end supermarket brands you cite aren't necessarily worth the price (unlike other premium dog foods, many of which are worth the cost). But it'll be interesting to see how those brands handle what amounts to a complete unmasking.

Please, what is the email address of menu foods? Anyone know?

You are so clueless!!! You are missing the human side of this whole tragedy!!!!! No one at Menu Foods wanted to harm animals!!!!!! Unfortunately our government failed to do their job in inspecting imports of wheat glutten and allowed a contaminated product into the US. No one could have foreseen this!! Now the employees and their families are suffering - they are without income. Their ability to feed their kids and support their families have been jeapardized. Menu foods came forward on their own and entered the recall. They notified other producers (DelMonte, etc) on March 8 of the possible connection to the wheat gluten -- yet the other companies kept producing and did not recall until March 31!!!!!!!! They allowed the attention to be on Menu, knowing they had the same problem and they weren't willing to correct it. Menu has been up front about it and should be commended for their actions. Uninformed consumers need to be more educated and should look beyong themselves!!

I agree with CD completely. I've worked at Menu Foods for 3 1/2 years and it has always been a great company with wonderful people. My heart goes out to all the people that have lost pets or whose pets are sick because of this tragedy. But I don't think the public should let their emotions place blame where it doesn't belong. The melanine found in the wheat gluten was not detected soon enough because nobody tests for it. That includes all other pet food manufacturers, not just Menu. It's just simply not supposed to be there. This a terrible mistake made by ChemNutra, the chinese supplier of the gluten. Unfortunately, the blame on consequence has all fallen on Menu Foods. Nearly all other manufacturers of pet food in the U.S. have issued recalls since Menu's because of the gluten. But they waited until all of the focus was squarely on Menu. Menu Foods was the first to identify the problem and issue a recall. We are all hurting now because of this, and this witch hunt of Menu is only making matters worse. Please educate yourself and don't believe everything you hear.

Recalled foods list up-to-date as of April 17, 2007: http://www.elainevigneault.com/2007/04/18/the-pet-food-recall-list-keeps-expanding.html

The list is growing. This is the largest pet food recall in the history of the US, probably the world. This is a HUGE scandal.

Bloggers must keep telling the story!