De la crisis del pepino a la crisis del huevo. Aciertos y errores en la gestión de comunicación de crisis alimentarias

Résumé

This research is born with the will to study and compare the different communication policies that were carried out as part of the management of two crises framed in the field of food safety: the cucumber crisis that occurred in 2011 as a consequence of the E.coli bacterium and the egg crisis, originated in 2017 due to the use of the insecticide Fipronil. In both cases, the communication strategy to inform about a food crisis designed by the different institutions, according to the European and national control systems, was decisive for its control, a process in which the media have a leading role. The errors and weaknesses of the public institutions will be highlighted, as well as the effectiveness of the different communication actions, framed in global communication strategies to report on crises, scandals and food alerts. Through an analysis of content, in which the qualitative aspects prevail over the quantitative, it is concluded that the cucumber crisis marked a milestone in the way of managing communication to face a food crisis, since controls and the warning system were reinforced. The communication management of the egg crisis shows the benefits of a proactive communication policy, although it reveals that the lack of communication between States continues to be a fact with serious consequences for health and for the economy of the affected countries