1 Quality Chilled Foods has asked you, a public relations consultant, to advise it what to do in relation to its retail customers in particular and the public in general. The company has absolute proof that none of its products contains listeria bacteria because its chilling process is unique and has in-built safety checks to ensure against this kind of eventuality. Prepare your advice in the form of a report, with special reference to the role which could be played by the salesforce. The company manufactures a range of up-market chilled foods in a market that covers the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, parts of Cambridgeshire and parts of north-east London. The region consists of more than 10 million people. The company’s customers are quality delicatessens and some of the smaller non-chain supermarkets.

The following report has been published in the local regional newspaper, a newspaper covering the area in which the company’s products are sold. This paper is an evening paper and has a very high readership.

Listeria bacteria has been found in a high percentage of chilled foods throughout East Anglia. This information comes from a report published by Essex County Council and it is confirmed by Norfolk and Cambridgeshire County Councils.

The report says that the virulent bacteria – which is particularly dangerous to children, elderly people and pregnant women – has been found in food such as cooked chickens, cooked meats and pâtés in supermarkets and stores. The report is to be studied in more detail later in the month by Essex authority’s environmental health sub-committee. It has been drawn up following a widespread survey in the towns of Chelmsford, Southend and Colchester. At the same time similar surveys have been conducted in Ipswich and Cambridge, and although these results are not fully confirmed, their respective county councils state that their findings are likely to be similar to the findings from Essex.

It concludes: ‘The relatively high percentage of commercial chilled foods which were positive gives cause for concern – not least because the large majority of these foods were ready to eat without further cooking or reheating.’

The Chief Environmental Health Officer for the area said: ‘The report is hardly a shock – it confirms a similar government finding of last year.’