The Blog DoggerHow blogs responded to a food recall

A meat recall depicts bloggers as heroes and corporations as villains—so why doesn’t your company have a blog?

Bloggers care about you; corporations do not.

Yes, that’s a gross generalization. But the way companies responded to last month’s massive beef recall might leave consumers with that impression. Here’s yet another lesson on how the blogosphere can bite you.

When Westland/Hallmark Meat Company recalled 143 million pounds of beef last month—the largest recall in U.S. history—few meat eaters seemed to panic. Isn’t that strange? Hundreds of pounds of beef dating back two years were recalled and the pandemonium was, well, non-existent.

This quiet belch from consumers was surely no accident. At least four of the large companies that produced products with the tainted beef didn’t notify customers, because according to law they didn’t have to. Instead, federal officials urged Westland/Hallmark to inform retailers—not the manufacturers—who then pulled the products from shelves. Meat-eating families were none the wiser.