The Case of Nutritional Foods by Kirk O. Hanson

The Case of Nutritional Foods, by Kirk O. Hanson

Overview of Case

Nutritional Foods Inc, a large manufacturer of health foods, is facing alleged allegations of food poisoning in their unpasteurized products. There are numerous reports of food poisonings, including two children that are in critical condition in hospital. Nutritional Foods reported to the public that it was recalling all batches of unpasteurized products that had anything to do with the food poisonings.

Internal and External Stakeholders

Internal stakeholders are as follows: Fred James, John Healy, company managers, employees of Nutritional Foods, retailers (could lose customers and money), and the Crisis Action Committee. External stakeholders are as follows: customers who purchase the product and became sick, the two critically ill children and their families.

Moral Considerations

In this case, there are a few moral considerations worth noting. First of all, Nutritional Foods is responsible for the two children that are in critical condition, and every consumer affected by their contaminated products. Two children could possibly die because of possible negligence, alongside the other consumers becoming increasingly sick. Also, there is the safety of their customers to consider. With practices as fragile and complex as Nutritional Foods, there is an extremely high moral responsibility to its customers to provide safe and healthy products.

Financial Considerations

This section includes anything that affects the company financially. To start off, there are the lost revenues of the pulled product. Any product that is between the factory and the store is considered contaminated and cannot be sold. In addition, the company`s reputation could be tarnished if any consumer dies, or if this case is not handled accordingly. There could be numerous potential lawsuits, with the costs and payout payments increasing with the severity of the cases. Also, if the affected consumers win their cases, there will be severance payments for months and years, depending on the case.

Legal Considerations

Legal considerations are summarized by lawsuits. There are potentially many cases Nutritional Foods will face in court, the range depending on the degree of poisoning experienced by consumers. In addition to this, there is the question of did Nutritional Foods produce and work within the state guidelines? If they did not, there are lawsuits they could possibly face, along with government inspections.

Alternative Courses of Action

Nutritional Foods can take the following actions in proceeding with the situation: to wash their hands clean of the blame and disregard their responsibility for the contaminated product, even though they admitted fault for it, or to become proactive and resolve the problem with proper ethical, financial, and moral responsibility.

The first alternative involves showing no concern for those affected by the contaminated product, and to continue producing their products without any investigation. As James mentions in the case, there is a risk of Nutritional Foods admitting liability if they show concern (Hanson).