The horsemeat scandal erupted into bitter recriminations and a torrent of legal threats over the weekend, as brands vowed to sue suppliers who vowed to sue sub-suppliers, and different EU governments engaged in vigorous finger-pointing.
As I write this, the Romanian government has just hit back at suggestions by the French that one of its abattoirs is to blame for passing off horse meat as beef, claiming its investigation has found no evidence of foul-play.
Meanwhile, a French minister has taken a swipe at the Brits and their calls for more testing, pointing out the UK’s push for cuts in the EU budget goes hand-in-hand with cuts to tests.
On top of this, three different Findus subsidiaries - in the UK, Sweden and France - have already signalled they might sue suppliers, with Comigel and Spanghero (two key players in the Findus ready meal supply chain) also vowing legal action.
The resultant cacophony of accusations and protestations of innocence could turn into a real problem for the industry. Because when everyone claims they’ve been defrauded and no culprit has been named, the public will take from this only one thing: everyone’s guilty.
As legal cases will take months to produce any results (if they don’t end up being quietly settled along the way) and government investigations are uncertain to do much better (it’s worth remembering that, despite the “conclusive” evidence pointing at Poland at the end of January, the Irish burger investigations have still not produced a name), retailers and suppliers now need to prepare for the worst-case scenario: a perpetrator may never be named.
To avoid joining the cast of the assumed guilty, companies will need a pretty persuasive strategy to convince consumers of their ethics and standards - and fast.
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