1. INTRODUCTION
The scandal that took place in Europe after consumers in several countries found traces of horse meat in various types of food left retailers in a shock estate. When consumers realized they might have been eating up to 100% horse meat without realizing, consume habits started to change, and supermarkets have been forced to look on new Supply Chain (SC) procedures that reduce complexity to gain consumers’ trust back.
This situation has also triggered arguments about liabilities between government and supermarkets: who is in charge of assuring an effective control of the SC?
This paper will focus its attention on discussing what went wrong with the food supply chain on the recent scandal in Europe. Section 2 will identify some main factors that potentially drove to this situation, followed by a discussion on how the problems with the meat supply could be repaired in Section 3. In the following section, an analysis of how purchasers could prepare for breakdowns in their supply chain is presented. Finally, a conclusion is offered.
2. WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
Last year’s horse meat scandal started with the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) analysis of some “beef” burgers in Ireland. A month and a half later, the matter became an international food security crisis involving well-known brands such as Findus, Nestlé, Ikea or Eroski, which highlighted the negligence in food tracing and control, as the European Commission stressed.
Increasingly, organizations are finding it more difficult to control their SC in a time where interruption and failures costs are at its highest. Currently, organizations outsource not only the manufacturing but also leave their reputation on their supplier’s hands without even hav...
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...actors that potentially drove to this situation, such as the very complex SCs with hundreds of providers, cost pressures from supermarkets to manufacturers but at the same time an increasing price of beef, lack of traceability and transparency, and limitations in the regulations.
Supermarkets and other retailers have been pressured to change their SC processes since the scandal came out, with a special focus on sustainability and incentives to its maintenance, corporate social responsibility and ethics, quality standards and ISO certification on the whole SC, developing effective partnerships alliances and developing measurement systems for SC performance.
After all, being ready for a SC disturbance is the best way to prepare for it, managing the whole chain without forgetting our main goal: to satisfy the final customer doing in an efficient and sustainable manner.
Zuckerman, Catherine. "Europe's Horse Meat Scandal Escalates, Investigations Ensue." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. .
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