There is good news for for you if you are interested in whether you are serving toxic chicken or bad beef and you are too busy to watch the evening news; the USDA is now on Twitter! (With almost a quarter million followers)
Food alerts (regarding: meat, poultry, and [processed] egg products) that are specified to the state will be tweeted with the tw0-letter abbreviation designated to that state, along with a FSISAlert. So if a product has been recalled in California, it will have the name followed by “CA_FSISAlert”
Although the USDA previously announced recalls more generally on another Twitter feed (@USDAFoodSafety), these new Twitter feeds will more specifically target the populations most likely affected.
History has proven that all food establishments are linked together. If there is a fear of tainted beef by the general population, all restaurants are impacted. If there is an unknown source of toxicity, everyone is affected. You will be scrambling to learn more in order to change your marketing plans. You now have a go to place for instant updates.
This proves once again that the social media tools are part of the mainstream media. Radio, TV, newspapers and Twitter are in competition for the attention. Twitter has moved from a personal communication tool to a broadcasting tool for emergenicy broadcasts.
