Dr Pamela Robinson in demand: commenting on the horse meat scandal
Recent stories in the news highlighted that horsemeat had been discovered in processed foods such as frozen beef burgers and ready meals (beef lasagne in particular). The immediate public concern was food safety, but as the story developed this was clearly a matter of the product label saying one thing and the reality being another. No one from the industry or retail sector, not even the British Retail Consortium, seemed prepared to respond to the concerns of the public and government officials. This created a communications vacuum and I - with my past professional experience in the retail industry - was the nearest thing to a retailer available!
The first interview I gave was on BBC WM Radio on Wednesday (the 12th of February) at 8.15am. This was followed by telephone interviews with the News Association and The Telegraph. That evening I was invited to give an interview on BBC News 24 and this was followed by an interview live on Sky News at 10.30am from the University media centre, and further requests from a number of BBC radio stations, some I could do but others not. I agreed to be interviewed on BBC Radio Wales (a little sentimental of me I guess) and Radio 5 Live drive-time that evening. But the press office was calling me again, would I go on BBC Midlands Today and be interviewed by the presenter Nick Owen at 6.30pm. It was less adversarial than other interviews that evening and I was relieved, after all, I am an academic and member of the Global Value Chain (GVC) research group, and did not want to appear as an apologist for the retail or food production sectors. I received a further call late that evening, could I do an interview on ITV daybreak at 6.40am the next day – it seemed churlish not to, as I had given freely of my time to the other media channels. The fact that I was somewhat grilled by the presenters, on the basis that supermarkets squeezed their suppliers dry whilst turning a blind eye to adulteration in the supply chain, made me think how different each network approached the issue. But this story was not going to die, and BBC News 24 wanted me back that Friday evening at 7pm for another review of the issue on what was becoming a more clear case of fraudulent activity in the food chain. Plus, of course, the results from the 2,501 products that were tested for equine DNA had been announced earlier in the day, so there was much to discuss.
Visit the website to view Dr Pamela Robinson’s perspective on the issue:
A Perspective: On the University of Birmingham webpage, Tuesday the 12th of February, 2013.
Horsing around with the food chain: counting the cost of cheap meat
Dr Pamela Robinson
Retail Specialist & member of the Global Value Chain Research Group
Birmingham Business School