Ethical Practices | Course Paper

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TO: Board of Directors: Nutritional Foods

FROM: ChloSo Consulting

RE: Analysis of Nutritional Foods reaction to possible food poisoning cases

DATE: June 28, 2014

INTRODUCTION

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to work with your company. Per your request, I have

evaluated the response Nutritional Foods had toward the recent food poisoning outbreaks with claims

against Nutritional Foods. I have studied the ethical issues that came up during the outbreak timeline.

My analysis utilizes company records to understand the period of events in question. As a result of this

analysis, I have discovered several ethical issues with your response to the claims against your company.

In response to these happenings, this memo is to identify the most signi3cant ethical issue and possible

solutions.

FACTS SUMMARY

Occasional reports of food poisoning, perhaps one every couple of months, during the past two

years.

Two reports came from two county health departments within an hour.

Cases reported a possible link between acute food poisoning of a child and an unpasteurized

apple product produced by Nutritional Foods and distributed throughout the Western United

States. (Sea7le and Southern California)

Unpasteurized products require daily distribution in refrigerated trucks.

Products are produced in two facilities, one in California’s Central Valley and the other in a

coastal city of Central California.

Fresh fruit and vegetable products are shipped from growing regions throughout the West to

these two facilities for processing and canning or bo7ling.

The handling of non-pasteurized products is critical as contamination could occur in picking,

transporting, or processing the fresh product.

Distribution is also critical to the freshness and safety of the company’s products.

ETHICAL DILEMMA

When should the company have taken action on any possible food poisoning cases possibly involving

their product?

ETHICAL ISSUE

The most signi3cant ethical issue that was discovered is choosing not to do something sooner. Action

should have been taken when reports of food poisoning started to ?ow in in the previous months. This

issue shows lack of concern for the public and pride in your product. When it comes to the product, the

company should show the ultimate concern for the quality. This case shows that this level of concern

was not present.

ALTERNATIVES

Alternative 1: Upon the 3rst report of possible food poisoning, complete a process review to ensure the

process works the way it should. Construct a process model containing every step to assure that

contamination did not, and could not happen in the future. Prior to implementing, create a Code of

Ethics and a Code of Conduct for all employees, including leadership. The stakeholders would be the

employees, truck drivers, distributers and farm owners. The cons of this process review would be the

delay in processing due to the review, the extra hours worked, and the possibility of changing the

process. The pros are 3nding out if there is a ?aw in the process. At that point, when the ?aw is

discovered, issue a recall. Discovering a ?aw and initiating the recall now could lead to less problems in

the future, and avoid the case in question.

Alternative 2: Initiate a recall on the product in question upon the 3rst receipts of possible food

poisoning. The stakeholders in this case are the consumers, the communities surrounding the facilities,

the employees and management of Nutritional Foods. The cons to this alternative are the loss of trust in