????很多人想想都會拒絕吃Seabiscuit（電影《奔騰年代》中馬的名字——譯注）。某些歐洲供應(yīng)商銷售摻有馬肉的牛肉的新聞之所以會引發(fā)公眾的強烈譴責(zé)，其中一個原因在于吃馬肉這個文化禁忌。

????上周一，有媒體報道稱，宜家（IKEA）一些歐洲店面銷售的瑞典肉丸中含有這種牛肉。宜家堅持認(rèn)為，美國店面銷售的肉來自于美國的供應(yīng)商。到目前為止，現(xiàn)階段歐洲馬肉丑聞中摻假的肉制品還沒有流入美國。

????綜合考慮，這件丑聞可能不會對宜家的業(yè)務(wù)帶來太大的影響。從收入來看，宜家肉丸的銷量仍十分可觀——這也讓宜家在靠自助式家具業(yè)務(wù)賺錢的同時又有了新的收入來源。

????但是這一事件可能會轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)橄M者的信任危機。策略溝通公司Levick高級副總裁兼危機訴訟部主席吉尼?格拉博斯基說，總的來說，宜家處理得還不錯。公司正視問題，同時提出了解決方案。而有些制造商卻并未這樣做。

????格拉博斯基說：“歐洲制造商試圖扮演受害者的角色，這是一個經(jīng)典的錯誤?！蓖瑫r也是一種糟糕的危機管理方式。他表示，在這種危機中有三種角色，即受害者、惡棍和維護者?！拌b于公司的規(guī)模和資源，人們并不會把公司看作是受害者?！?/p>

????但公司可以扮演維護者的角色。宜家在這一方面做得很出色。它停止銷售含有馬肉的牛肉，而且還發(fā)布了新聞，告知客戶哪些店面的肉制品是安全的。

????與其他危機一樣，這個危機有它固有的一套特征，而且要求處理方作出針對性的反應(yīng)。格拉博斯基說：“由于不涉及食品安全的問題，因此這次危機并沒有大多數(shù)食品丑聞那么嚴(yán)重。然而，這件事情更具警示性，因為它著實讓人們大吃一驚。原因不僅僅在于食品的誤標(biāo)，而且還在于餐桌上擺的可能是馬肉這一事實，而吃馬肉在很多文化中都受到強烈抵制?！?/p>

????食品造假的其他案例則帶來了食品安全問題。例如，2008年，中國經(jīng)銷商在奶粉中摻入了三聚氰胺這種物質(zhì)。三聚氰胺可以讓牛奶的蛋白質(zhì)含量達(dá)到一定的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，但實際上，這些奶粉的蛋白質(zhì)含量只有嬰兒所需蛋白質(zhì)含量的約1/6，而且還有毒副作用。

????毒害嬰兒是可怕的，但是讓人吃馬肉也屬于食品造假案例?！妒称房茖W(xué)雜志》（Journal of Food Science）的一篇名為《食品造假為公共健康帶來的危害》（Defining the Public Health threat of Food Fraud）的文章將食品造假定義為因謀取經(jīng)濟利益而在食品中蓄意摻假。食品造假并不是什么新鮮事。文章稱：“自古以來，食品造假一直都有；有證據(jù)顯示，帶有假的羅馬封印的雙耳細(xì)頸橢圓土罐中裝的是假橄欖油和假葡萄酒?！?/p>

????Many balk at the idea of biting into Seabiscuit. The cultural taboo around eating horse is one reason why the public has had such a negative reaction to the news that certain European suppliers have been shipping beef contaminated with horsemeat.

????On Monday, news broke that said beef made it into IKEA's Kottbullar Swedish meatballs served in some European facilities. Meat in the U.S., the company insists, comes from U.S. suppliers. So far, no contaminated meat in the ongoing European scandal has reached the U.S.

????To put the scandal in context, this will probably not significantly dent IKEA's business. Financially, its meatball sales are just gravy -- the company can more than float the business on the profits from its build-it-yourself furniture.

????But it could turn into a consumer trust problem. Mostly, says Gene Grabowski, senior vice president and chair of crisis litigation of the strategic communications firm Levick, IKEA has handled this well. It is addressing the issue and promising solutions. That is not true for some of the manufacturers.

????"The European manufacturers are making the classic mistake of trying to appear as victims," Grabowski says, which is bad crisis management. There are three players in crises like these, he says: the victim, the villain, and the vindicator. "People don't identify companies as victims because of their size and resources."

????Companies can, however, be the vindicator. In this respect, IKEA has done a fairly good job. It stopped sales of horsemeat-contaminated beef, and it issued press releases informing customers of the locations where the meat is known to be fine.

????This crisis, like every crisis, has its own set of circumstances and demands a tailored response. "It's less serious than most food scandals because safety is not really an issue," Grabowski says. "But it is more alarming because it's so shocking to people, not just that the food is mislabeled but that they may be eating horsemeat, and that's abhorrent in a lot of cultures."

????Other examples of food fraud have resulted in safety issues. In 2008, for example, distributors in China adulterated milk powder with a substance called melamine. The melamine made the milk appear to have the appropriate amount of protein, but in reality it only had about one-sixth of the protein infants need. It was also toxic.

????Poisoning babies is horrific, but feeding people horsemeat is still an example of food fraud. Food fraud, as defined by a 2011 Journal of Food Science paper called "Defining the Public Health threat of Food Fraud," is the intentional adulteration of food products for economic gain. It is not a new phenomenon. The paper says: "Food fraud has been conducted since antiquity; evidence has been found of counterfeit Roman seals on amphaorae containing fraudulent olive oil and wine."