The Food & Drink Federation's marketing manager Dominic Dyer said the national press quickly "lost the connection" between the proven danger of Sudan 1 to animals and the minimal risk that the rogue dye could cause cancer in humans.
Dyer was critical of the lack of context in blanket press coverage of the most recent food scare, but Dom Lane of Bristol-based PR agency BCLO believes that the industry has escaped relatively unscathed. "I think the supply chain has dealt with this issue very well, by addressing it immediately. And as a result of some good, proactive PR, the effects on food in general will be limited because the press coverage at large has been extensive rather than intensive," he said.
Lane's colleague at BCLO Catherine Humphries said the scare once again underlines the need for food firms to prepare for such an eventuality. "No company is immune to crisis," she said. "In fact the one predictable thing about crises is that they will happen.
"If [during a crisis] you don't communicate effectively, what is not necessarily a reality can become a perception," she said. "The key is to be part of the problem - be a solution. Do not avoid the media, they are there to work with. But communicate when you have gathered all the facts, do not be forced into it."
Lane added: "Communicating a negligible risk in a positive light is a serious PR challenge as it is a difficult concept for the consumer to understand. Perhaps we need a consistent dialogue that we all can use in these circumstances. Firemen do not wait until there is a fire to fill up the tanks in their engines."
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