Business Logistics

Horse Meat Scandal

Business Logistics

Introduction

Nowadays throughout the Europe there is, food related issue is in discussion, foods those have claimed as containing beef are suspected to having unsaid horse meat and other unannounced meats, like pork. This issue came into a discussion in Jan, 2013, when it was stated that horse DNA has been revealed in beef burgers traded in Ireland plus many British supermarkets. In fact, horse meat is not dangerous for the physical condition and is consumed in numerous nations, but it is perceived as forbidden foodstuff in few countries covering United Kingdom and Ireland. The examinations affirmed that many of the samples of Beef burgers contained pig DNA. (Horsemeat Legal Action Starts in Europe Sky News. 11 February 2013).

Investigations first began by the FSAI (Food Safety Authority of Ireland) and reported the existence of horse meat in beef and also present findings to the public. The first positive test used for DNA was in Dec, 2012. After that many tests have been conducted on subsequent dates. Eurofins laboratory took the samples to Germany and indicated the occurrence of horse DNA. Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in Ireland obtained few more tests. Those have been sent to the Identigen laboratory. Results showed that of the ten burger products quantification of the horse DNA presented an approximated amount of 29% horse DNA relation to the beef DNA material of the burger item. These manufactured goods were prepared by Silver crest in place of Tesco. At that point of time, here was no clarification for the result of horse DNA relative to beef genetic material in this only sample. Later, it notified the Food Standards Agency in the United Kingdom.

Further FSAI advised five retailers Tesco and etc of their findings. All such firms pulled out the hurting products. Media made the issue sensational just focusing on one burger. Further few other suspected samples were found in raw materials, which are imported from Spain and other European countries. I have selected the beef product of burger king to study the after effects of this story on burger king products and also studied the supply chain of the product, followed by studying the operations management system which is being used in processed food companies in United Kingdom.

Discussion

As per the requirement, we first look into defining course objectives and functions. It will help to understand the basic principles and theories of operations management. Starting with the operations management, this can be defined as the process of converting inputs into outputs. An operating system is a configuration of combining the resources for the provision of goods and services (Wild, 2003, pp. 5-7). Operations managers are primarily concerned about the physical resources such as material, machines and labor. Manufacturing and the transportation are the basic function of operation management. Manufacturing process need raw materials to be available for conversion into final goods and transportation process involves delivering final goods to the final (Wild, 2003, pp. ...