by
Graham Peaslee, Hope College, Holland, MI
Juliette M. Lantz, Siena College, Loudonville, NY
Mary M. Walczak, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
"How do you explain the fact that for more than thirty years we've been selling
hamburgers without a problem then all of a sudden - Bam! - this happens," were the
first words out of Rodney McDougall's mouth as the meeting began. McDougall, President and
CEO of Jill-at-the-Grill hamburgers, had just flown into Seattle for an emergency crisis
management meeting. "Can you give us an update on the situation, Bill?"
Bill Copeland, the regional manager for the sixty Jill-at-the-Grill restaurants in the State of Washington, said with a worried expression, "Well, I'm afraid the situation is grim. A four-year-old boy died this morning and a nine-year-old girl is fighting for her life in the intensive care wing of Children's Hospital. Two hundred additional cases of food poisoning have been reported and the State's chief epidemiologist has traced all these occurrences to a batch of contaminated frozen beef patties distributed two weeks ago throughout our chain."
"What we're dealing with here is the E. coli bacterium," said Sal Menelli, the company's senior toxicologist. "Sixteen people have died from this new strain of E. coli O157:H7 in the last ten years in the United States in other outbreaks. We've been fortunate not to be hit until now."
"Well, we've really been hit. Our stock has lost 30% of its value in the last two days, and the media is having a field day. If we don't turn this around within 24 hours it will spell financial catastrophe for Jill-at-the-Grill," groaned Walter Hereford, Jr., the company's Vice President of Finance.
"What steps can we take to prevent this from ever happening again?" asked Rodney. "Can we salvage any of our image that we have worked so hard to maintain?"
"As far as steps we can take, we have already increased the temperature at which we cook the meat," said Bill. "I say we lab test one burger out of every batch."
"Not only is the cost of that prohibitively high, but we would have no assurance that another patty in that batch wasn't contaminated," rebutted Walter.
"A small temperature increase is not going to help. This strain of E. coli may not be totally wiped out on heating to even 170 degrees at this level of contamination," said Sal.
"Besides," added Walter, "changing the temperature is not something the public will recognize as a serious response."
Rodney stood up and paced toward the windows. "To think that something as benign as a hamburger can kill a kid is just startling. Our customers’ well-being has always been a high priority. We have always been an industry leader in this area. We were the first to adopt recyclable packaging. The first to stop using beef tallow to fry our fries."
After a minute of silence, Sal volunteered, "There is a controversial suggestion that we've been working on in the Process Development Laboratory at company headquarters. I'd like to introduce Dr. Rebecca Pike who has led our recent efforts."
Rebecca began, "My thesis work involved examining the effects of gamma irradiation on foodstuffs. In my research lab at Jill-at-the-Grill we have extended this work to focus on beef. My results show that bacteria are effectively killed by this process, but the meat remains safe to eat."
"What exactly is involved in ‘gamma irradiation’? Is it like cooking the meat with a microwave?" asked Rodney.
"No, not at all. The basic process involves passing high energy electromagnetic radiation called gamma rays through the food. Most of the gamma rays pass through the food without interacting with it. Enough photons interact with the matter, however, to break bonds within the molecules. This effectively kills bacteria or at least prevents their rapid multiplication, which will lead to the eradication of disease-causing bacteria."
"Now, wait a minute," Bill interjected. "Are you talking about nuking the food? I’m not serving glowing food to my customers, and there is no way that I’m going to expose my employees to radioactivity! That’ll really help our public image."
"There is controversy surrounding this process, it’s true," Rebecca replied patiently. "In fact, Syracuse University’s food service just banned irradiated food. However, the scientific facts are clear. Irradiating the food leaves no traces of radioactivity. My research with beef has indicated no increased free radical production over normal aged beef. The process has been endorsed by the UN World Health Organization and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. In the U.S. it is already being used for poultry, pork, and a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains. Besides, many of the spices in our products are already irradiated."
"Yes, the American Consumer Association is promoting this process. In fact, I got a FAX just this morning from them," added Walter. "This process has the advantage of increasing shelf life which decreases losses due to waste. In addition, there are several new companies setting up irradiation facilities nationwide. We have an opportunity to be the first fast food chain to buy into this technology while it is still new."
"Well, I got a FAX today too," said Bill. "The ‘Radically Against Radiation’ organization has threatened to picket my restaurants if we adopt food irradiation. They seem to think the testing has been inadequate. What if the general public has a similar response to irradiated hamburgers? Besides, I'm skeptical that our managers would go for this."
"We have to make some statement tomorrow to the press," Rodney insisted. "We can’t afford to make a mistake. Could this food irradiation option salvage our ruined image in the eyes of the public? Or would adopting this process destroy our image beyond repair?"
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Attachments
Letter from President of the American Consumer Association
Letter from the Radically Against Radiation Organization
