Horrible how even the legends in the food business can get caught cuttin' corners. Mars have just made a right-royal screw up. Read the accompanying article-let.
This is hot on the heels of Cadbury in the UK being slapped with a humongous fine because they knowingly kept Salmonella-contaminated chocolate products on retail outlet shelves instead of notifying the public, the authorities and withdrawing the darned stuff. 
Now they've created a crisis of confidence. Worse, they and folks like Mars are contributing to a legitimate global paranoia about what's lurking deep inside our formerly tried'n trusted foodstuffs.
I know of a toothpaste manufacturer who years ago ran out of glycerine and their production manager suggested substituting an animal ingredient to produce 'the same effect'. Being a vegetarian, I was furious and asked him how, if he kept Kosher or Halaal, he'd feel about finding unspecified animal ingredients in his mouth, without his knowledge or choice. Yuck! If I were on the board of that company, I'd have fired him on the spot. His approach is called, 'How to kill a brand overnight.' A marketing and PR case-study of note.
Posted by Clive Simpkins
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