field of animal feed used to overlook many details of crisis management. Today we witness a change in this attitude towards a more open risk awareness. But that is a developing process. Samples, reference samples, measures such as a crisis plan that assigns responsibilities and staff training reduce the risk potential in a company significantly. Dr Carsten Bittner: Additionally, modern analysis methods are more sensitive. Today it‘s possible to detect contaminations that went completely unnoticed ten years ago. There simply didn‘t exist any adequate methods. This also means that the producers have to avoid even slight amounts of contaminants. Nobody is interested in how insignificant the amount of dioxin is. The simple mentioning of the word is enough to make people panic. What insurances do you recommend your clients? Klaus-Dieter Zühr: I think the recently introduced compulsory insurance for compound feed producers is nonsense. www.ortner-group.com Almost every company is insured alrea-dy. And the new law doesn‘t impose new obligations, which means that the compulsory insurance won‘t change anything. It‘s much more important to keep in mind that many insurances exclude certain aspects. Often the com-panies are not aware of this or simply accept it as a given fact. We are talking about dioxin – most insurance contracts don‘t cover dioxin contamination. How-ever, there are contracts without this exclusion available. It‘s a similar situa-tion regarding recall coverage. Usually, the insurance only covers the costs for recalls, if people may be harmed. However, it‘s also possible to include an indemnity clause. At the moment when animal feed is dispatched, and there is a danger of animals dying, the recall coverage becomes active. I daresay about 90% of all German companies operating in this field don‘t have this type of insurance. It doesn‘t have to be this way. Every entrepreneur should therefore check his insurance policy and arrange an amendment if necessary. Thank you for the interview. Es werde Licht ... Die Reinraumtechnik der Zukunft beginnt JETZT. Serienreife Personenschleuse revolutioniert den Markt durch lichtinduzierte Desinfektion. Unsere mehrfach patentierte Technologie der photodynamischen Desinfektion wirkt auf Basis eines Farbsto es in Verbindung mit speziellen Lichtwellenlängen. Dieser Prozess tötet Mikroorganismen an der Kleidung von Personen innerhalb kürzester Zeit ab und garantiert höchste Reinheit. Ortner Reinraumtechnik GmbH Uferweg 7 • A-9500 Villach • Austria • Tel.: +43 (0)4242 311 660-0 reinraum@ortner-group.at • www.ortner-group.com contamination incident only after a couple of days. The authorities don‘t appreciate things like that at all. Talking about the authorities, what do you expect a company to do in such a situation? Dr Ronald Steiling: If need be, the authorities can even impose a recall of the products concerned. Usually, our clients call, if they suspect contami-nations and ask us what to do next. We inform them about the questions the authorities are probably going to ask. And we recommend to be well prepared for these questions. Dr Carsten Bittner: If this isn‘t the case the situation is likely to develop in a similar way to the Aflatoxin incident in March 2013, where the authorities stopped the import of forage maize from certain countries. The exact origin of the mould-contaminated batch could not be identified. Many companies had to suffer the consequences even though their products were unaffected. How can a company make sure that the authorities and customers are satisfied with their actions? Dr Carsten Bittner: In particular, we advise them to ensure complete trace-ability of their products. Accord-ing to law, an entrepreneur must be aware of who his suppliers and cus-tomers are. What happens in a “black box“ operation? Is the company able to satisfactorily prove, which incoming batches went into the final product? This kind of traceability isn‘t required by law. But we try to convince every client of the advantages of complete documentation. At the end of the day, this is the only way to ensure that you make a responsible impression on the authorities. It also keeps the damage in a crisis at a controllable level and en-sures that the customers don‘t return all products they have bought from the company. Dr Walter Scheuerl: The same thing applies to public relations activities: A confident and professional crisis man-agement is only credible if I explain what happened to my products. Are the companies in this sector not aware of this? Why is it that incidents happen repeatedly? Dr Ronald Steiling: Preventive meas-ures are expensive. The food sector already has to deal with the price pressure on part of the retail trade. Especially companies operating in the are actors – and I especially refer to animal rights activists - who are skilful at using the Press in order to generate donations through free PR. Are large and well-known com-panies more prone to be named and shamed than small, regionally operating companies? Dr Carsten Bittner: We once dealt with a case where a GMO contamina-ted food product was sold. The source of the contamination was far away overseas. Our client was lucky enough that only the name of the producing company was published by the press. The fact that this matter concerned a well-known brand that can be found in any supermarket remained undis-closed. Therefore, a large media circus could be avoided. Dr Walter Scheuerl: Medium-sized companies are less threatened if they don‘t sell well-known brands and public interest is less great. EHEC was a different story. This case was extraordinary because it was one of the few food crisis in all of these years where people were harmed. In such a case even a small company will be in the limelight of media attention, if it‘s identified as the source. Dr Ronald Steiling: This also shows that the effects of a crisis can be just as severe for a medium-sized company – put into relation – as in cases were large corporations are concerned. What are the most frequent errors made by companies in the event of a crisis? Klaus-Dieter Zühr: Many companies only deal with crisis plans in theory, but in the event of a crisis nobody knows what to do. Of course, many crises happen unexpected and suddenly – and are also unintended. However, the organisational, technical order of a crisis situation must be specified and can be trained. This includes names of contact persons and deputies in the relevant departments and the defini-tion of measures that have to be taken in the event of a crisis. It also includes the participation of the employees and an open information policy about production risks and the procedures of crisis management. Dr Carsten Bittner: It always depends on good communication. If products are contaminated, this incident has to be reported internally. We dealt with cases were the head of the legal department was informed about a SAFETY CONCEPTS SICHERHEITSKONZEPTE 2014 53
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