The last week or so has been made up of postings by this author on a variety of food safety issues including eggs, prescription drugs and other products.
The reason I post on these issues is because whatever the industry or the government is doing or more than likely not doing has to be fixed. We and by we I mean the procurement professionals of the world can fix it, but we have to hold suppliers accountable along all aspects of the supply chain. That means from raw materials, feeds and so on until the consumer uses the product safely.
How do I know that we are not learning and not applying tools that are available or asking for tools that should be available? It?s pretty simple.
Here?s an example. E.coli outbreak in beef puts focus on tougher oversight. That title comes from the September 4th 2010 edition of the Arizona Republic by Matiga Lohn of the United Press. On June 16th of 2008 this author published the following post.What?s your risk associated with the sale of tainted food? Who?s Culpable?? That post e began with I was reading the Sunday June 15th 2008 issue of The Arizona Republic and found a short article in the week in review section titled Girl?s tainted-food death brings $13 mil settlement.
Here?s the deal, I may have found this in the same newspaper some 27 months a part, but the companies involved in both cases are subsidiaries of the same conglomerate. The new article says that this incident is prompting a fresh look at tougher regulations to protect the nation?s meat supply and the undersecretary of the USDA has signaled interest in expanding federal oversight of meat beyond the most prevalent strain of e.coli. She goes on to say that our policies need to evolve to address a broader range of these pathogens. Come on. The Same Company is involved, both are similar issues and the government response is the same. So hindsight is not 20/20.
If this was an employee, it would be simple. You are fired. You did not learn from your last mistake. Please remember we have elections in the fall and a supplier that does not do their job properly can also be fired.
We look forward to and appreciate your comments.
