Jeff and Jenny welcome a special guest for a close up look at how the food industry has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly when it comes to food safety. Laura Dunn Nelson is the Vice President of Food Safety and Global Alliances at Intertek Alchemy, which offers a wide range of training solutions for frontline employees to work safer, smarter, better. She talks to Jenny and Jeff about the unprecedented challenges food companies have faced during the pandemic and how companies have had to find a way to keep their employees safe. In addition to infectious disease prevention measures, Nelson covers the food industry’s changes related to preventative maintenance and supply chain management. She also has some advice on how companies can enhance their safety culture. Nelson helps Jeff and Jenny analyze the high-profile January Recall of the Month. Nestlé issued a massive recall of 763,000 pounds of Hot Pockets that could be contaminated with pieces of glass and hard plastic. How well did Nestle Prepared Food manage the crisis? Jeff and Jenny give the company high marks for how they communicated through the recall.

Jenny and Jeff welcome a food safety expert to analyze a salmonella outbreak linked to onions from a California supplier that sickened hundreds of people across several states. Dr. Jennifer McEntire, Vice President of Food Safety at United Fresh Produce Association, offers some perspective on this far reaching recall that impacted all 50 states. Dr. McEntire explains how this onion recall raised the attention of the food industry, as well as how an outbreak investigation unfolds. This episode also features a discussion on how salmonella can be found in pet foods.  Pet industry veteran Vicki Ford talks to Jenny and Jeff about what pet owners should know to keep their furry friends safe.

In this unusual episode of Breaking Bad News, you’ll learn more about head meat and cheese than you probably ever wanted from hosts Jeff Hahn and Jenny Gregorcyk. But that’s not all. The recall of more 38,000 lbs of boneless beef head meat products from Canada brings up the importance of the complex inspection process to keep imported food safe in the United States. July 2020 was a surprisingly slow month with food recalls. Jenny and Jeff discuss why a head meat recall would garner so much media attention and analyze how the company communicated the recall.

Is it mere coincidence that this podcast discussion would center on two things that often go together, salty snacks and marijuana?  Actually, hosts Jeff Hahn and Jenny Gregorcyk focus on some recent food trends during the COVID-19 pandemic as consumers turn more to snack and processed foods. That discussion leads into Jenny revealing the May Recall of the Month, the first time a marijuana product has been discussed on Breaking Bad News. Speaking of that title, Jeff and Jenny talk about how Jeff's crisis communication playbook has finally arrived from the printer and how listeners can get a copy of Breaking Bad News by only paying for shipping.

The Cops TV show song "Bad Boys" is the theme of this special edition of Breaking Bad News as Jeff quizzes Jenny on some recent big name brands that were hit with food safety fines. The two hosts also play "Monday Morning Quarterback" by going back and re-crafting the company's statements using a message development formula in Jeff's new crisis communication book.

What impact has the COVID-19 pandemic had on the number of U.S. Food recalls? The Apron Food PR research team looked into that question. In this "Recall of the Month" episode of Breaking Bad News, hosts Jenny Gregorcyk and Jeff Hahn discuss the possible reasons why food recalls have dropped during the recent crisis. Jenny also reveals her selection for the April Recall of the Month, which dives into the food import inspection process and the possibility of an uptick in food imports during this COVID-19 era. .

Jeff and Jenny are podcasting from their homes to comply with "Stay at Home" orders and it gives them a chance to analyze the impact of the health crisis on the grocery and food service industries. Jenny also unveils her Recall of the Month selection. She and Jeff take a look at how a well known brand dealt with a flurry of bad press.

A pet food giant is featured in this Recall of the Month edition of Breaking Bad News. Before hosts Jenny Gregorcyk and Jeff Hahn reveal the top February food recall, they take a look back at who many believe is the father of today’s food safety laws. Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley became the first USDA Commissioner after his high profile food experiments in the early 20th Century

In this special edition of Breaking Bad News, hosts Jenny Gregorcyk and Jeff Hahn take a break from our regular Recall of the Month discussion to dive into a really interesting trend report Apron Food PR just released called the Food Forecast. The Apron Food PR strategy team identified two big trends for this year:  "better for you" and "better for the planet." Jenny and Jeff discuss the big focus on health and wellness, as well as how consumers care a lot about their own personal environmental impact.

The theme of the January Recall of the Month Podcast is “history repeats itself” with a brand in a previous recall podcast making a repeat performance. That leads hosts Jenny Gregorcyk and Jeff Hahn into a discussion about the history of food safety. Before revealing recall of the month, Jeff covers a crisis risk assessment tool known as The Cassandra Calculator. Named after the fabled Greek prophetess Cassandra, the calculator is a weighted assessment of variables to help organizations prepare for a crisis.