According to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Consumer Attitude Survey released on 2 April 2008, almost 65% of Australians feel that food safety has improved during last year.
This is the picture I've got this morning from my friend in Brisbane - a sausage roll from the Tek Caffe, with a large industrial staple in the meat.
In case you wonder, the "lucky" guy who found it is OK and none of his teeth are broken.
The more interesting thing, however, is that when they called the Tek Caffe (a very popular lunch spot in South Brisbane) to complain, they were told that it was the manufacturers' responsibility and that they "didn't care". The caffe manager's actual words were, "What do you want me to do about it?"
Apparently, the sausage roll is now in the company's fridge awaiting the Brisbane City Council Health Department to pick it up.
This is just weeks after the release of the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Consumer Attitude Survey results, with 64.5% of respondents saying they felt food safety generally was about the same or had improved during last year.
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Food industry and innovation
For a second or two, I thought this entry did not belong to this blog.
But as I analysed this situation and given my background in food engineering and research, I can see the point.
I have colleagues working in a candy factory in Mexico. In one occasion, they had a similar issue to the staple in the sausage roll. Only that this was a screw that somehow got into the centre of a hard candy, mostly marketed to children. A very upset parent turned up in the factory with the offensive product, he realized something was wrong with the candy just when his son was about to eat it.
My friend's reaction was to immediately investigate the issue and she lobbied the company executives to implement an x-ray system in the finished product line, so they could detect any foreign objects just before packing the product. They installed the system, at a great expense for the company, but they knew that they could pay an even greater price if they did not introduce the new system.
I know for sure that some very interesting work in the field of robotic vision is being developed in Australia, for quality assurance purposes in the food industry. The developers are just looking for an interested buyer from the food industry to further advance the tools.
The convenience/take away sector is growing rapidly in Australia, I am sure that if several small operators join in to ask for increasing quality assurance measures, they would have a greater chance to be heard by food suppliers (such as the sausage roll supplier). But first, the convenience/take away sector must be brought into a new way of thinking about themselves (they ARE becoming very important in the food supply chain) and about the way they conduct business (they CAN be a major source of market-led innovation push).
So can food regulators! I would like to see the government taking a more proactive role on this regard, but this is a subject of another blog post :)
Cheers,
Silvia Estrada-Flores
Food Chain Intelligence
http://www.food-chain.com.au/
Authorities say everything's under control, but stay vigilant
More on the subject: "Metal found in meat in SA" - AAP article published on Tue, Apr 8 2008
The article provides a useful piece of advice for anyone finding a piece of metal in their food - they should return the object, the food product and packaging to the point of purchase.
They should also contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.