Supply Excellence — Food Safety: Better to do it yourself

Food Safety: Better to do it yourself

February 28th, 2008 · by Kris Colby · No Comments · best practices, supply management, supply risk

The House Energy and Commerce sub-committee on Oversight and Investigations had some of the nation’s top food company CEOs on the witness stand this week. Congress’ look at the record breaking recall of 143,000,000 lbs of beef, piled on top of the tainted vegetable stories of the last year, serves to highlight another example of supply chain risks gone bad.

The attention this issue got when it was microscopic bacteria on vegetables was nothing compared to the graphic footage of abuse at a California cattle ranch, which experts believe actually posed little threat to consumers (including school children), who ate the beef. The public and the Federal government are giving food safety their attention now…leaving the industry with two choices:

Leave no stone unturned and protect your brand - “trust but verify” the pieces of the supply chain with more stringent selection of suppliers, increased product testing, real supply scorecards for vendors and regular site visits.
Do nothing and let government regulators tighten safeguards while the press probes you with expose reports for a (literally) hungry, yet scared audience.

I don’t know what’s going through the minds of the CEOs on the witness list or at the hundreds of other companies in their supply chains. But, if it were me and I was paraded before Congress in an election year and scolded by Rep. DeGette that voluntary recalls by the food industry is like letting the “fox guard the hen house”, I’d be implementing some tighter controls quickly and publicly. Minimizing risks in your supply chain is critical. And it’s always better to do it yourself than leave it to regulators and politicians.

Kris Colby, a Director of Ariba’s Spend Management Services group, recently authored a white paper on the subject – An Ounce of Prevention: Steps Your Organization Can Take Now to Reduce the Risk of a Product Safety Incident.

Email Forward & Bookmarks