Food tampering can be a food manufacturer’s worst nightmare…and New Zealand is not immune to the threat. When infant and other formula was threatened with contamination with the poison 1080 until the Government stopped using it two years ago, we got a taste of what could happen when our produce is tampered with. From a criminological perspective, product tampering is fascinating. The motives can be as widespread as the food itself…from terrorism to corporate sabotage and extortion, to simple theft and malicious mischief. And catching criminals is difficult if the crime appears to be a random act with no motive. So what have been some of the most major international cases of food tampering without the manufacturers’ knowledge? Here’s six of the best: Girl Scout biscuits (1984)…pins, needles and other foreign objects were found in boxes of biscuits in at least 17 American states, resulting in reports of pierced gums and injured lips. The organisation suspended sales that year and, even though it introduced a new tamper-proof box the following year, saw sales decline 25% which forced it to cut some programmes. No one was ever apprehended. 20 NOVEMBER 2016 Oranges (1978)…when the four children of the Bergs family in the Netherlands complained about the taste of their Jaffa oranges, their parents saw silver globules in them and rushed the children to hospital. A Palestinian militant group calling itself the Arab Revolutionary Army claimed responsibility, telling the Dutch government that it had injected citrus fruit from Israel with mercury in order to induce panic and disrupt Israel’s economy. Gerber (1986)… The Food and Drug Administration received about 140 reports of glass in Gerber baby food and, upon investigation, confirmed 21 cases of tampering, although they were likely caused by isolated individuals. The case is remarkable because it has become a case study for how not to handle a PR crisis. Rather than issue a recall of its products, as its competitor Beech-Nut had done only a week earlier when faced with a similar situation, Gerber allowed its baby food to remain on store shelves. When Maryland banned its peaches, Gerber sued them. Baby food (1989)… Great Britain faced its worst case of food tampering when slivers of glass, razor blades, pins and caustic soda were found in products of two of the nation’s largest baby food manufacturers, H.J. Heinz, and Cow & Gate. A blackmailer trying to extort $1.7 million from Heinz triggered copycats capitalising on the initial report. Ground beef (2003)…111 people fell ill with nicotine poisoning after eating ground beef from a supermarket in Michigan, which recalled 1,700 pounds of the product. Employee Randy Jay Bertram had mixed insecticide into the meat in an attempt to get his supervisor into trouble. The victims included about 40 children, a pregnant woman and a 67-year-old man with heart problems. Jell-o pudding (2010)…Alexander and Christine Clement, a couple in their 60s from Rhode Island, decided they didn’t want to pay $1.40 for a pack of pudding so they purchased a box, replaced the powder with a mixture of sand and salt, and returned it to the store for a refund. They hit four stores, buying and returning about 50 packages, and were eventually thwarted by surveillance video. Indicted on multiple counts of petty larceny and tampering, police said they were probably acting under the influence of age-related mental issues, and just wanted free pudding. FOOD TAMPERING A FOOD MANUFACTURER’S WORST NIGHTMARE
FT-Nov16
To see the actual publication please follow the link above