Pork Recall, Part Two...

StevenSimske — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:40:00 GMT

I chatted with my friend and fellow HP colleague, Mick Keyes, a business/technology strategist in Dublin and an expert on Track and Trace, about the Irish pork recall. Mick provided me with some of the personal aspects of the recall.

According to Mick, This a bad one ok. The effects are becoming obvious. Over 1000+ workers laid off in past few hrs as processing plants grind to a halt. 12 EU sites have banned all Pork from Ireland (this is a 400 Million euro export business that is affected). You can see how the whole banking/Credit crunch is intersecting with this in real time. Plants can't get credit to pay workers or suppliers so its immediate "close down" and layoff workers. Industry now reckons this is going to cost $1 billion over all..and they want a Govt. bail out. Retailers want compensation. Consumers want compensation. It is a mess. Very sad listening to small family owned business crying on radio shows in abject desperation. The size of recall (i.e. ALL pork products/Whole industry ) is raising question about how effective Traceability systems are in protecting those that haven't done "anything wrong".

Terrible to think about all these affected people, with little recourse. And, they have to pull all products when 10% (of the farms) of the 10% (dating from the correct period) of the products on the shelf are affected. Not a sustainable method forward. As times get tougher and wallets thinner, we're simply going to have to have a better way to manage how we separate the good from the bad. And, with higher confidence so consumers do not turn away from the industry en masse. Tomatoes, milk, pork--that just about covers my Uncle's entire diet. If Guinness is recalled, he's going hungry for the Holidays. I'll bet he's noticing. Food may be the tipping point that many thought pharmaceutics would be.

The point on the availability of credit cannot be overstated. Without access to easy credit--a reversal of the past 15+ years--there is no margin for error. When profits can't be made, there's nothing in reserve. The just-in-time supply chain can quickly become the just-no-time response. If there's no slack in the system, then contingencies must be incorporated in the design. In future blogs, I will describe how come of these concerns are being addressed.

-Steve

Irish Pork Recall another Track and Trace Debacle

StevenSimske — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:06:00 GMT

The latest food recall is a potential disaster for one of Ireland's biggest industries. On the second week of the Advent season (right when shopping for Christmas ham is hitting its stride), consumers have been asked to destroy all Irish pork products dating back to September for fear of dioxin contamination. Because of the nature of track and trace systems currently in place, this may amount to as much as

More information on the reasons for the recall are given at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7769893.stm

According to the Telegraph (a big UK news service), the pork industry is Ireland's fourth largest industry, with Ireland's 400 pig farms (providing work for 7,000 people in Ireland, including 1,200 on the farms) contributing about 400 million Euros (approximately 600 million dollars) to the Irish economy each year. The contamination of the pork was traced back to animal feed from one supplier used in more than 40 farms. Based on this, 90% of the pork destroyed will probably be wasted (i.e. no contamination), but since the dioxin concentration in the contaminated pork is 80-200 times the safe level for consumption, there is little room for error.

Also, about 90% of the pork products on sale were processed before September, and it is not obvious that or how this will be taken into account in the recall. Clearly, a substantial percentage of the pork products are contaminated, but much uncontaminated pork will be destroyed as well. A full-compliance, global produce track and trace system would not only reduce the waste, but would increase consumer confidence in the recall. Even with the wide swath of recall, will some contaminated products be missed?

It's bad enough that the pork producers suffer a devastating hit to their industry in an already treacherous economy. It's far worse to know that the damage may be much worse than it has to be.

-Steve

Security Printing and Imaging : Recall, Irish pork recall

Pork Recall, Part Two...

Irish Pork Recall another Track and Trace Debacle