Friday, August 29, 2008

Poppycock! Food Company CEO Takes Blame For Food Problems

I saw on the TV news that the CEO of MapleLeaf Foods has declared full responsibility for the recent contaminated food outbreak.
What a load of TWADDLE!
If his idea was realistic, it would mean that society would not need the food regulations that it has.
If his idea were realistic, it would mean that he is making the statement that the food inspection (You know, the food inspections that seem not to occur despite taxpayers paying the officials who are assigned to be responsible for such inspections) is of no consequence one way or the other.
If his idea were realistic, he is saying that all cases of contamination or other occurrences are measurable and preventable as a 100% method of doing business.

Myself, of all people, with my total lack of confidence in the governmental and civil servant morons who allow food to be unsafe by such practices as using the presence of a corporate safety program as justification for not requiring the legal regulations to be a factor, would be happy if this man was able to truly be a scapegoat, and that by taking his responsibility, all society would need is for him to never do it again and all would be well.

But the reality of food safety is that food is not properly inspected by the authorities, so there is no 'back up' of the inspection process that the company processing the food has responsibility for.

I suggest that this CEO take back his acceptance of responsibility, and re-issue it with the addition of 'within the Mapleleaf plant'.

The final responsibility for food safety is with those people who the taxpayers are rightfully expecting to do what they are being employed by the taxpayers to do. THEIR JOBS!

The responsibility of a corporate CEO is clearly split - there are the shareholders, and there are the consumers. And even I cannot expect 100% success on my behalf as a consumer while the shareholders have to be satisfied with profits.

The ones who should be taking the blame are the failures to society, the civil servants who live in a self-protective culture that encourages them to never accept responsibility, or even to do the job we are paying them to do. They favour the practice of letting the food companies self-regulate the food safety, instead of participating in the inspection process.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Should The Public Sue The Food Safety Enforcing Public Servants?

Food Safety is far lower than it appears. We are no doubt all lulled into a false sense of security by knowing that there are laws governing food safety.
There is, after all, only one thing that is more unsafe than an unsafe act or condition, and that is having the same situation but covered up or hidden.
The problem can in most cases be traced to the enforcers.
Try taking a look at the amount of times a food establishment has has action taken against them for violation of food storage or handling regulations.
In many jurisdictions the number will be easy to count - NONE.
That is because the food safety enforcers appear to be favouring the food companies in their methods of applying the regulations.
In most if not all states and provinces the regulations are fine, well thought out, good commonsense rules and laws.
But you can have all the laws you like if the enforcement is not occurring.
The amazing thing is that if you chase these people, they will generally point blank refuse to do their job and enforce the regulations.
I informed such an individual about flies from a garbage bucket stored behind the counter in a coffee shop in a shopping mall food court, and that was over a year ago. The bucket remains, the flies still fly up, and even at times settle on the uncovered food (against the regulations) and even copulate there.
As an experiment, and just to see how thick skinned and obtuse these public servants are, I have actually informed THREE governmental levels, including a provincial Member of the Nova Scotia Legislature (MLA) of the flies, which fly up as the servers pass, and then settle on the sugar and the cups. The coffee counter is three small units from the passageway to the public washrooms, which are in constant use.
The end result in doing this is that there is protesting done about my attitude, and thinly veiled threats made about legal action. But still no attempt to enforce the regulations.
Maybe I have to belong to a special club or society in order to get work done that my tax dollars are paying for.
What the public needs to do is take some action in the courts to force these individuals out of their cozy civil servant jobs.
They need suing for accepting salaries under false pretences. They need publicly exposing , and publicly ridiculed. If they were in private industry, they would have failed performance reviews. If continuing, they would eventually be let go.
So, if you need to have some fun, and have some time, look into how many food establishments have been acted against for regulatory violation. In Nova Scotia, it is very few, the reason being given that "We work with the establishments in order to get the compliance done" or something similar.
Also, I was advised to phone in order to discuss the matter and have it explained to me.
Interesting how those who prefer not to be accountable always prefer the phone.

But, this is not just a local problem to my own province here in Nova Scotia, it is a Canada and USA - wide issue.

Check the regulations for your state or province.
See the violations
Advise the Enforcers.
Be told a load of hogwash.
See the violations continue.
Watch the issue create health scare or a death.

That appears to be the system of food safety we are working under. Amazing.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Annoying Advertising To Attract Attention - Don't Buy These Dell Products!

I have previously, in my other blogs, I believe, mentioned advertising that is created to deliberately annoy the consumer in order to attract attention to the product.
I have no idea what the product of Mothers Against Drunk Driving is, but I do know that should they ever canvas me for a donation, I will point out that they should have saved the money that they paid out for a TV ad showing a crying baby, with the volume and frustration of the child increasing throughout the ad. Yes, MADD people, I saw it. It worked, I was put into a position where I could not ignore it. And I feel sad for the people who donated in good faith to this organisation only to see their money wasted in this manner.

The latest one is DELL.
Now we know that this company, despite good products, has very poor customer care, in fact so bad that it is better not to annoy yourself calling them. And we know, or at least I do, from experience that they have poor internal communication, and will lose payments money in the system for months. We also know that they do, at least when you blog about how poorly treated you are by them, make the money correct by recognising the payment made (in my case to the incorrect department) and correcting the interest charges. Moral of the story - pay cash, or get your financing elsewhere.

BUT.
The latest is a window that pops up in your PC saying DISCONNECTED, together with a loud high pitched whine. After a few seconds, just as you are about to shut it down, it comes up with a DELL ad.
Well, DELL, I have news for you. I think that your ad stinks, and I refuse to finance such activity by buying another PC or digital camera from you. I suggest that you either fire your ad agency, or check their work before it goes online. There are other companies with similar prices to yours who don't annoy me in order to get my attention, but instead just offer good products, the same as you do, you know, the ones that I will no longer be buying from you, even for cash.