Product Contamination Exercise

Taco Bell’s Poison Foods

Workplace Continuity & Contingency Planning – 1M

Dalessa Roy

June 19, 2016

Taco Bell’s poison Foods

Product contamination is a catastrophic event, both for the organization at fault and for the victims. Cases of product contamination frequently make the news. Complete the following assignment:

Find an example of product contamination that occurred and discuss the way in which the organization reacted. 

What should an organization do to prepare for such a risk?

I can recall Taco Bell having a few contamination problems. a long history of problems. In 1995 Taco Bell in Salt lake City, Utah had a contamination of hepatitis A among some of its customers. It turned out that a worker had the virus and did not tell taco Bell. It was only a few years later in 1999 where children were testing positive for E. coli O157:H7. The investigation led them to Taco Bell where there has been studies proving that the beef from Taco Bell is associated with illnesses. The investigation went on to discover that a beef supplier (farmer) was responsible but records were not kept to trace down what beef went where. In 2000 Taco Bell had green onions with hepatitis A which made many people in Florida sick. There were 23 cases of it. Taco Bells in South Carolina, Kentucky and Florida were affected. In 2006 E.coli 0157:H7 was discovered at Taco bell in Northeastern United States. The investigation concluded that the lettuce, ground beef, yellow onions and cheddar cheese all had E.coli 0157:H7 however it was not the same strain. In 2010 there was Salmonella connected to Taco bell eighty people were infected with it. Finally in 2011 there was another Salmonella out-break this out-break was associated to a few unnamed fast food Mexican eateries. The foods infected ground beef at a percentage of 94%, 77% of the cheeses, 35% of the tomatoes was the average found in Taco Bell eateries.

May of 2014 Taco Bell has started publicly displaying the ingredients in their foods like what is in the ground beef. Nothing has been approved or has been deemed safe by the FDA. Taco Bell still claims it uses 100% pure beef with no MSG. Spokesman for Taco Bell Rob Portsch claimed that the reasoning behind the ingredients list was to educate the public what customers are consuming claiming this gives them the choice to eat taco Bell or not. 2014 seemed to be the decline of lawsuits against Taco bell for illnesses. Taco Bell is currently trying to better their foods by having a website where customers can go and file any complaints they may have about the business. With food poisoning happening more and more at eateries it is not safe to eat far from home today. Employees can cut down on the cases of illnesses by simply washing their hands regularly and especially after going to the restroom. I also think it should be mandatory for all food handlers to wear gloves to help protect the food from being contaminated.

References

Roddy, R. (2014). Food Poisoning History with Taco Bell

Food Poisoning History with Taco Bell