Negative Social Sentiment Could Spell Further Backlash Against Whole Foods For FDA Violations

According to the latest data from TickerTags, Whole Foods Market, Inc. WFM could be facing accelerating public backlash from its recently-reported FDA health code violations.

TickerTags monitors social media sites to identify trends by searching for words and phrases that appear together in social media content, such as tweets.

Last week, the FDA sent a letter to Whole Foods detailing some 483 health code violations it identified at a location in Massachusetts in February. The story quickly went viral on social media, with mentions of “FDA” + “Whole Foods” surging.

Prior to the release of the letter, social media sentiment surrounding Whole Foods was mostly positive. Predictably, the tone of social media content took a sharp 180-degree turn when the FDA letter began making the rounds. Whole Foods’ negative social media sentiment, which normally averages around 28 percent, doubled to 56 percent on the day of the letter’s release.

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The last time Whole Foods’ negative social media sentiment spiked this high was when a gay pastor falsely accused the company of writing an anti-LGBT slur on a cake. Sentiment recovered when surveillance footage proved the allegations to be false. This time, it appears as if Whole Foods and its investors will have to endure more than just a short-term spike in negative sentiment.

Since the release of the FDA letter, Whole Foods’ stock is down 9.3 percent.

Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.