ECONOMICS

Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain Management

Critically discuss what went wrong with the food supply chains to the supermarkets and manufactures of processed beef products.

In the middle of January, the Authority of Food Safety of Ireland announced that consumers who thought they were consuming beef in the frozen form of hamburgers were basically purchasing horsemeat. This news was not seriously considered since the well known supermarkets in Ireland became astonished to hear about the same happenings in the England's biggest supermarket, Tesco. This scandal was expanded from English and Irish Tesco supermarkets to their company's suppliers such as Liffey Meats and Silvercrest Foods in Irelands, and Yorkshire supplier Dalepak. It is essential to notice that Dalepak and Silvercrest, both are the subsidiaries of ABP Food Group which is one the biggest European beef processors. (www.bbc.co.uk) The company gets the meat from variety of sources and they blamed on the Netherlands and Spain for this adulteration and later charged Poland for this act. However, the government of Poland has detected no problems in its horse slaughterhouses, and the search continued even as adulterated products were found in more retail outlets, including, schools and even restaurants. In the United Kingdom, different schools and restaurants have detected horse DNA in several kinds of ready meals. Lasagna and Swedish meatballs were discovered to be made of horsemeat, and many big supermarkets from Switzerland and France were found in the contamination. Moreover, the DNA tests disclosed that around 80 to 100 percent meat was used of horse instead of beef. It was considered as a fraud by labeling the beef food as few people might have allergy from horsemeat or does not like to eat it, but the disguise make them wonderfully eat without any issues. It certainly spoiled the trust of supply chain management and different international or state agencies.

In 1990s, after the scare of mad cow, Europe prohibited the beef of British and placed restricted controls to check the origin of slaughtering animals for fresh meat. Although, meat was further processed and many of the tests by safety and control department found that it was not only horse or pork, even the donkey's meat were also being used. The meat of horse has also showed up in fresh meat, but it was caught by the safety officer (www.caa.co.uk)s. The scandal of Tesco products which contained the horsemeat really shocked the people of Europe. Undoubtedly, this scandal was removed from the highlights of media, but could not easily remove from people's mind. The eating of horsemeat sickens people. After having the strategic review regarding the scandal of horsemeat, the government announced in a documented statement to Parliament that we find the vulnerabilities in the supply chain of meat that can be exploited by criminals or cheaters. They said that the buyer of the product must be confident about his shopping instead of trusting on a brand. The review of government were considering the obligations of food practices and businesses throughout the supply chain, which include ...