Food Safety and Quality Control at
Delectables
In business, ethics is taken in three important
contexts. First, ethics is concerned with not
breaking work-related regulations and laws, in
which case, would be interpreted as criminal.
Second, is to avoid any activities or rather
actions that would result into the filing of law
suits against a business organization.
Lastly, ethics requires that employees and the
management of business organizations act in a
way that promotes the image of the business
organization and not otherwise (Fieser).
Therefore, lack of business ethics in a business
organization or company can result to severe
consequences for the company or business
organization in question.
It is the lack of ethics that is the root cause of the
tribulations of Georgia’s Delectable food
products manufacturing company. Both the
senior management and the casual employees at
the company act with complete disregard to the
ethical requirements in doing business.
What the human resources at Delectables need
is ethical appraisal and not laying off as many
would suggest. The employees need to be
trained on ethical and legal issues of doing
business (Fieser). The Kantian theory of ethics
would be a good point to begin in order to bring
change to the state of affairs at the Delectables
food manufacturing company.
A new graduate hired by the Delectables
Company in Georgia has good prospects to
apply his fresh ideas in business ethics to
transform, bring change with regard to business
approach, and make a difference at the company.
To begin carrying out his responsibilities, the
newly hired low-level manager will seek to have
the answers to several questions. These answers
will be instrumental in helping him or her to
effectively perform his/her responsibilities
which include improving the plant’s operations,
increasing efficiency and saving costs at
Delectables. The new manager will have to
determine how he or she will introduce the
theory and principles of ethics in business at
Delectable.
Another important question that must be
answered would be how to revolutionize or
rather improve the quality control system at
Delectables. Improving the quality control
system will ensure that their products are safe
for consumption with reference to the recent
claims of salmonella contamination on
Delectables food products.
Another issue would be how to gain competitive
advantage against competitors such as Prince’s
Fare. Lastly and most importantly, would be to
determine what business management
approaches to apply in achieving these major
objectives.
The responsibility of the new manager is surely
complex and it would be crucial that he blows
the whistle in order to be able to bring system
change at Delectables. In justifying his decision
to blow the whistle, the normative theories of
ethics would be of significant importance.
These theories include the Kantian theory of
ethics, the Utilitarian theory of ethics and the
Contract ethical theory. The problems and
challenges facing Delectables stem from
unethical and illegal activities and actions of the
company’s management and employees.
Therefore, these three ethical theories of
business ethics together with the underlying
principles would provide an insight into what
needs to be done at Delectables. Most
importantly, the three normative theories of
ethics will provide guidelines on what ought to
be done in order for the manager to realize his
tasks of improving the plant’s operations,
increasing efficiency and saving costs at
Delectables.
It would be beneficial for the new manager to
blow the whistle since by doing so he will be
protecting the interest of many. The
contaminated food items being distributed by
Delectable in addition to the deplorable
condition under which the food items are being
manufactured pose health thread to the intended
consumers.
By blowing the whistle therefore, the new
manager would be acting in an ethical manner.
The Kantian principle of ends, emphasizes that
individuals and business organizations such as
Delectables need to put into consideration the
interests of others in all their actions and
decisions.
This principle prohibits individuals and business
companies from disregarding the interest of
others and uses them as a means to achieving
their intended financial gains (Normative). The
others in this case should also be an end in
themselves.
Normative ethical theories and principles shape
business organizations and individuals to act in
an ethical and morally acceptable manner.
Normative ethical theories and principles
stipulate what individuals and business
organizations ought to do.
They explain that the actions of individuals and
business organization should be moral and
ethical (Normative). For instance, employees
and the management of business organizations
ought to be honest. The principles of the
normative ethical theories are important in
assessing as well as justifying the decisions,
actions and activities of employees and
businesses such as those at Delectables.
James Fieser in his “Business Ethics article”
posits that business philosophy advocates for
morality in business operations by addressing
issues that are concerned with what is right and
what is wrong with regard to conduct, actions
and activities.
As such, business philosophies just like the
normative theories and principles of business
ethics emphasize the importance of morality in
keeping a business company and its employees
out of trouble. Trouble may arise due to a breach
of the regulations and laws formulated to govern
business operations and activities. In the case of
Delectables, employees and the management
acted in an immoral manner by deliberately
releasing into the market contaminated food
products.
The application of the Utilitarian ethical theory
business would mean that managers and
employees alike act or rather make decisions
that result in as much good compared too other
available alternatives. With regard to the
Delectable case, they have other alternatives in
their operations other than the ones they are
engaged with.
The act of utilitarian encourages decisiveness as
one can not serve two masters at the same time.
The utilitarian rule is that an act can only be right
if it conforms to the laid down rules, laws and
regulations (Normative).
The harm principle of the utilitarian theory of
ethics stipulates that the society has a
responsibility and is justified coercing
individuals and organizations that act in a way
that is harmful to the society. The actions of
Delectables with reference to the utilitarian
principle of harm are harmful to the society. The
society in this case is the intended consumers of
the contaminated food products both in Georgia
and in San Lopez.
Regarding the signing of the quality control
form, it would be against the expectations of the
ethics in business. Signing the quality control
form would mean the manager’s agreement with
the rest of the pack to sell harmful food products.
The quality control director at Delectable
despite poor work environment improvised
“stickers” method to help with quality control at
the company. Delectable lacked a proper food
safety and quality control system. The
improvised system was equally effective as the
director was able to identify harmful food
products, those that needed further testing and
those which were safe.
If the new manager signs the quality control
form, he would be acknowledging that all the
food products manufactured by Delectable were
safe for human consumption which was not he
case. It would be immoral and unethical to sign
the quality control form (Fieser).
In order to improve the food safety and quality
control at Delectables, the new manager must
first look into the potential cause of the problem.
Poor employee working condition, in addition to
the reluctance of the management to institute
proper rules on the processes and procedures of
food production, are the major causes of
contamination at the Delectables food company.
The World Food Program emphasizes that food
safety deals with the aspects of food products
production from production, purchase,
transportation, storage, processing, as well as
distribution (Normative). Any activity that does
not adhere to hygiene standards and the federal
laws and regulations that guide the manufacture
of food product is likely to jeopardize food
safety and quality at any stage during production
and distribution.
The quality control director at Delectables was
realistically effective in his efforts to ensure that
the products released into the market for human
consumption met the appropriate standards. His
efforts were however sabotaged by the
Delectables plant supervisor, the foremen and
the casual employees who acted without
considering the ethical consequences of their
actions.
The management of Delectable was not
interested in following up whatever was going
on in the company. The management should
have investigated the allegations of
contamination to help them with the
improvement of the quality control system.
Government Role in Assuring Food Safety
Governments and regional authorities are
mandated to formulate laws and regulations, as
well as standards to guide the manufacture of
food items by companies such Delectables. Both
the federal government and the Georgian
authorities had the responsibility of ensuring
that Delectables adhered to laws and regulations
governing the manufacture of food items. This
would have minimized the chances of food
contamination that is a major challenge to the
giant food manufacturer.
As Fieser posits, enforcing regulations and laws
to ensure food security is an important role of
the government. The authorities should follow
all the actors in food manufacturing industries to
ensure safety and quality of food products.
The US federal government through its agencies
and in collaboration with authorities in Georgia,
should carry out regular inspections to ensure
companies such as Delectable adhere to hygiene
standards to prevent any chances of food item
contamination during the process of the
manufacture.
Governments are faced with numerous
challenges in dealing with the challenge of food
safety and quality. These challenges include lack
of public awareness on issues, regulations and
laws on food safety and regulation. Lack of
updated food products safety and quality laws is
another challenge to the governments and its
agencies.
Inefficient and weak government inspection and
supervision on food product manufacturing
companies such as Delectables, contributes to
the problem of poor quality food products which
are not safe for the consumption of the general
public (Thompson & Ying 13).
Regional authorities such as Georgia need to
adopt effective approaches towards dealing with
issues affecting food safety and quality
especially those that relate to the manufacturing
companies such as Delectables. The authorities
must demonstrate a greater understanding of the
issues that they face and formulate strategies to
help them in addressing the challenges.
The federal government on its part must build
the capacity of its various agencies mandated to
ensure the safety and quality of manufactured
food products. This would enable the agencies
deal effectively with the challenges that hinder
their effective operation in dealing with issue
that violate the requirements of regulations and
laws on food safety and quality (Thompson &
Ying 13).
Despite the numerous challenges that
governments face, they can make food
manufacturing industries more socially
responsible by enforcing more stringent
regulations and penalties on companies that
violet the requirements of the regulations.
Governments could also offer incentives to food
manufacturing companies that demonstrate high
standard of ensuring their food products meet
safety and quality requirements. However,
governments should not let food companies to
regulate themselves. This is because some of the
food companies may want to save their costs
operation and this might jeopardize the quality
and safety of their food products (Thompson &
Ying 13).
According to the normative theories of ethics,
product dumping due to their low quality is
unethical and is not ought to be done. The
supervisor was of the opinion that the company
dumps its contaminated food products in San
Lopez at subsidized prices.
What the supervisor should have done in line
with the normative theory of ethics is to propose
the destruction of the contaminated food
products with the red sticker. Selling of these
food products to customers is unethical since
they are harmful to consumers (Normative). The
food products with the yellow stickers also
ought not to be damped but taken back for
further examination.
Kantian principle of ends stipulates that
individuals and businesses should act in away
that their actions do not use others as means to
an end but rather act in away that others are also
an end themselves. According to the utilitarian
harm principle, this behaviour is immoral and
the society would be justified in coercing the
behaviour of such individuals.
By dumping the contaminated food products,
Delectables would be causing harm to the
intended consumers. It is important that the
supervisor puts into consideration the interests
intended of the customers in San Lopez
(Normative).
Advise to Delectables
The image of a business company is of the
greatest importance. Business ethics require
employees to act in a way that protects the image
of the business company. By offering to sell
substandard food products in San Lopez,
Delectables would be harming the image of the
company.
With regard to the ethics of doing business, this
is immoral. With reference to morality in
business, both the government officer and the
official from the superstore in San Lopez were
unjustified to ask for a bribe from Delectables.
Both the scenarios are illegal and unethical. It is
impossible for a situation to be legal and at the
same time unethical.
Works Cited
Fieser, James. Approaches to Business
Ethics. Web.
Thompson, Drew, & Ying, Hu. Food Safety in
China: New Strategies. Web.
P. Fellows, B. Axtell, M. Dillon. Quality
Assurance for Small-Scale Rural Food
Industries. Web.
Normative Ethical Principles and Theories: A
Brief Overview. Web.
