Official Alma Press Release
Alma Catering Company on potential food poisoning
In Panteion University we have a class, a lab actually, called Crisis Lab and it is done under Betty Tsakarestou and Mrs. Mania guidance. For the end of the semester, we’ve been told to do a crisis simulation, so they gave us an assignment, in which we had to prove that we can deal with a crisis in a “hands-on” experience. Our team was a catering company and had one significant job: through this simulation we had to act as fast as we could when we realised a crisis was near. Below you will read our steps and thoughts in order to manage the crisis.
As a spokesman of Alma catering enterprise, Ι confirm that we got informed about two incidents of possible Food Poisoning that took place on Monday 9 January 10:00 am and on Tuesday 10 January 12:00 am in Melia Hotel to which we offered our services . From the first moment we got in contact with every single member involved with this crisis trying to figure out what is going on.
First incident
The first incident was announced to us on Monday 9 January 10:00 am by Ms Christina Adoniadou the manager of Melia Hotel who informed us that the head of EKT Thomas Vandermild is sick with stomach disorders. We immidiatly contacted the doctor and started checking our products which where all clean with no reason to cause such an incident.
Second incident
On Tuesday 10 January 12:00 am we got a call from the representative of the ministry of economy that says that there has been a second outbreak with the same symptoms.
What we did
Our team has already contacted our company’s headquarters in Zurich in order to be informed about any similar events at the same time in another country, and the response was negative.
There has been also a contact with our suppliers who confirmed that both the general and the internal company control system and the HACCP system functions properly without being presented any suspect material trace. The transfering process went smoothly and quickly without any exposure of the products in unsuitable conditions.
In order to make sure that everything funtions well and that its not our blame we checked and confirm that the health conditions and working conditions inside the hotel was also the proper and we were confirmed that everything worked perfectly.
Meanwhile we are in communication with the doctor of the hotel who examined the patient, and the media too looking forward for any new detailed result.
Our company places safety first.
We have been operating for ten years without having any similar incident. We have the appropriate quality checks (among others an ISO verification, a HACCP ( Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, control within the production processes) and finally a Hamnet (our own personal quality check) as frequently as needed in order to make sure that both our products and our workplace conditions are proper and representative of the high quality of our enterprise. All these verifications are available and we will be happy to share in case that is needed. We are a transparent company with nothing to hide.
As are a well trusted and qualitative enterprise that has all the necessary certifications to funcion properly and make sure there are quality products from the beggining to the final result and we will continue to do so out of respect for our clients.
We are a large enterprise responsible of catering services in many countries all over the world, and we have never had any flaw when it comes to our service or reputation . Safety precautions are top priority for Alma.
In any case we will be in touch with every single member involved with this crisis and with the media too so as to figure out the points that went wrong and threatened our reputation.
