Saturday, June 24, 2006

Chicken Chocolate?

Cadbury's - a large company manufacturing chocolate, among other confections - has recalled a million chocolate bars from the shops because of a salmonella scare. Now I always thought that salmonella was a bug you caught from under-cooked chicken or eggs. But it seems that a leaking pipe in the factory caused an amount of the bacterium - the rare Montevideo strain - to contaminate some chocolate bars during manufacture. The company dutifully informed the Food Standards Agency and withdrew all bars from the shops which might be a risk.
So a mistake was detected and dealt with - good for Cadbury's.
Except for one thing.
The original problem happened in January. The company reported the problem on June 21, nearly six months later. Cadbury's spokesman said that the risk had been deemed as infinitesimal and as such it was not worth scaring the public because there was no risk of catching salmonella. It was, however, noticed that cases of the relatively rare Montevideo strain of the disease had gone up four-fold of late. Investigation led to Cadbury's coming clean and finally doing the right thing. Their share price on the Stock Exchange immediately went down by a notable amount.
Some of the confections involved were the sort that children would buy with their pocket money. How can Cadbury's let profit and share prices come before the health and well-being of their consumers?
Money talks louder than common sense or public duty.
The FSA should take steps to prosecute the company for supplying foods unfit for human consumption. That would certainly affect profits, share prices and the company's reputation. It would also send a strong signal to others that risking the health of the population for the sake of profit does not pay.

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