Coca-Cola's Belgian Crisis - The Public Relations Fiasco



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The Recall

On June 13, 1999, the US-based Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola),1 the world's largest carbonated beverages company, recalled over 15 million containers of the soft drink after the Belgian Health Ministry announced a ban on Coca-Cola's drinks, which were suspected of making over 100 school children ill in the preceding six days.

This was in addition to the 2.5 million bottles already recalled in the previous week. The company's products namely Coke, Diet Coke and Fanta, were bottled in Antwerp, Ghent and Wilrijk, Belgium, while some batches of Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite were produced in Dunkirk, France........

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Children at six schools in Belgium had complained of headache, nausea, vomiting and shivering after drinking Coca-Cola's beverages, leading to their hospitalisation. Most of them reported an 'unusual odour' and an 'off-taste' in the drink.In a statement to Reuters, Marc Pattin, a spokesman for the Belgian Health Ministry, described the seriousness of the issue, "Another 44 children have become ill with stomach pains, 42 of them at a school in Lochristi, near Ghent, northwest Belgium........

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