UNCONTAINED: Fighting Facebook with Facebook

I feel for Kraft Foods. It’s not easy when contamination from one of your products becomes an Internet star due to a packaging-related quality problem. More...

I feel for Kraft Foods. It’s not easy when contamination from one of your products becomes an Internet star due to a packaging-related quality problem.

Kraft was blindsided when a Florida consumer found a glob of something disgusting in her pouch of Capri Sun and posted it on her Facebook page. After some delay (this broke on Memorial Day weekend), Kraft Foods eventually had the thing tested and identified it as mold, probably caused by an improper pouch seal.

Kraft is trying to fight Facebook with Facebook. A Q&A on the Kraft Facebook page explains that “an issue with a single pouch does not indicate a broader problem” and that “there's just no way to guarantee a pouch is never cut or punctured.”

Kraft is getting flayed for “insensitivity,” but what else can they do?  Using another material and/or completely revamping the form-fill-seal process would be unreasonable, especially since no solution could completely eliminate leaks or bad seals.

Comments on Slashfood.com seem evenly divided-and heated, in the best Internet tradition. The best the company can hope for is that more people will take the perspective of this lady: “That is one downside to the Internet. It is easy to start public hysterics over an isolated incident.”