Odwalla pleaded guilty to criminal charges of selling tainted apple juice. It paid a $1.5 million fine, the largest ever assessed in a food industry case by the Food and Drug Administration. Federal investigators now suggest that Odwalla had regularly accepted blemished fruit and ignored warnings by its own safety team. Moreover, as sales plummeted 90 percent, company officials maintained an inside/outside strategy: covering up company malfeasance while positioning Odwalla as a victim along with those who it had poisoned. (Entine, 1998, at: http://www.about-ecoli.com/news/odwalla16.htm).

             Though the ethics of the situation are suspect from a business standpoint they were crucial in the future success of the company. Industry standards have since changed a great deal and Odwalla quickly stepped in line with industry standards for pasteurizing its product, something that they had long resisted but eventually in 2002 became an FDA requirement excluded only by tough labeling laws, warning consumers of the unpasteurized nature of a product. Though there are still suspicions associated with the situation, the right answers to tough crisis marketing can be found in the case studies of the situation.

             Odwalla acted immediately. Although at the point where they were first notified the link was uncertain, Odwalla's CEO Stephen Williamson ordered a complete recall of all products containing apple or carrot juice. This recall covered around 4,600 retail outlets in 7 states. Internal task teams were formed and mobilized, and the recall - costing around $6.5m was completed within 48 hours. What the company didn't do was to avoid responsibility. On all media interviews, Williamson expressed sympathy and regret for all those affected and immediately promised that the company would pay all medical costs. This, allied to the prompt and comprehensive recall, went a long way towards satisfying customers that the company was doing all it could.