Abstract When people get sick from eating contaminated food, producers, regulators, and consumers confront a food safety crisis. Scientific testing is central both to determining the nature of the contamination, assessing its seriousness, and evaluating future supplies for their safety. This paper examines a case where testing was involved in both the triggering and the resolution of the largest food safety scare ever to hit New Zealand. The 2013 incident involved the country’s largest dairy exporter, Fonterra, and the putative presence of clostridium botulinum in whey protein sold to business customers who used it in infant formula and other consumer goods. The case highlights the need for food producers to develop narratives around testing for inclusion in their stakeholder-related crisis planning. Such narratives must be compatible with the goals of the audience especially consumers, who wish for certainty and to see decisive action being taken. Practical Applications Communicators dealing with food safety-based risks and crises need to take into account lay publics’ biases towards assurances of zero risk. This should be part of determining audiences’ information needs and calibrating provision of scientific information, including information about necessary testing, in ways that meet these needs. Doing so will help build trust, including about the scientific method and the organisations applying it to determine not only the nature of a given risk but also to assess how best it might be mitigated. While distrust might surface in a risk-based crisis, communicators should focus on messaging that addresses uncertainty through providing consistent and credible information.
ORCID: 
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)