Unethical Practices in the Food Industry
Unethical Business Practices in the Food Industry
Business Ethics
According to Wikipedia, the definition of conscience is: “Conscience is an ability or a faculty that distinguishes whether one 's actions are right or wrong. It leads to feelings of remorse when one does things that go against his/her moral values, and to feelings of rectitude or integrity when one 's actions conform to our moral values. It is also the attitude which informs one 's moral judgment before performing any action.” I believe that a person’s conscience plays a large part in making ethical or unethical decisions in business. Business ethics according to Wikipedia, is described as: “A form of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment.” With this definition, there are many companies that let their conscience or lack of thereof guide them in ethical or unethical business practices. The focus in this paper will be on unethical business practices as there are many cases available for discussion. There are many companies in the food industry that make unethical business decisions for a variety of reasons, most of the reasons revolve around profit and production. I cannot think of a company that would love to lose revenue. One example of a company that made an unethical business decision was the Beech-Nut company. This company is a manufacturer of baby food and juice products. They have been known to market apple juice to children that claimed to be 100% pure . The company tried cutting costs by ordering apple juice from a supplier at a lower cost. The supplier did not sell apple juice to the Beech-Nut company but a chemically alter product instead. When Beech-Nut was informed of this by investigators, the company failed to act even after the Food and Drug Administration conducted its own investigation. In order to save their reputation and dollars, the company shipped the product to foreign markets
Business Ethics
According to Wikipedia, the definition of conscience is: “Conscience is an ability or a faculty that distinguishes whether one 's actions are right or wrong. It leads to feelings of remorse when one does things that go against his/her moral values, and to feelings of rectitude or integrity when one 's actions conform to our moral values. It is also the attitude which informs one 's moral judgment before performing any action.” I believe that a person’s conscience plays a large part in making ethical or unethical decisions in business. Business ethics according to Wikipedia, is described as: “A form of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment.” With this definition, there are many companies that let their conscience or lack of thereof guide them in ethical or unethical business practices. The focus in this paper will be on unethical business practices as there are many cases available for discussion. There are many companies in the food industry that make unethical business decisions for a variety of reasons, most of the reasons revolve around profit and production. I cannot think of a company that would love to lose revenue. One example of a company that made an unethical business decision was the Beech-Nut company. This company is a manufacturer of baby food and juice products. They have been known to market apple juice to children that claimed to be 100% pure . The company tried cutting costs by ordering apple juice from a supplier at a lower cost. The supplier did not sell apple juice to the Beech-Nut company but a chemically alter product instead. When Beech-Nut was informed of this by investigators, the company failed to act even after the Food and Drug Administration conducted its own investigation. In order to save their reputation and dollars, the company shipped the product to foreign markets
References: Baby Food Action Network: http://www.babymilkaction.org/pdfs/factsfairtrade1005.pdf Wikipedia: http://www.wikipedia.org Boatright,J R., (2007). Business ethics: Second Custom Edition (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.