Contaminated Water Is More Than Just A Third World Problem

Contaminated Water Is More Than Just A Third World Problem
Even in Canada, where clean water is taken for granted, good water can turn bad and contaminate the processing line if proper precautions aren’t taken. Preventing a problem before a contaminant finds its way into food is a fraction of the cost of fixing it.
– by Isaac Rudik

Recently, a major food processor had to recall tens of thousands of contaminated packaged products. Not only did the recall, and finding and fixing the problem, cost millions of dollars, it did untold damage to the company’s reputation with consumers.

While the source of the problem in the processing line was eventually located and fixed, the issue highlights a major issue every business dealing with food for human consumption faces: Ensuring that contamination from one of dozens of potential trouble spots doesn’t creep into products that people eat.

Even in Canada, where clean water is taken for granted, it’s possible that what starts out as potable can become contaminated, affecting everything from fruits and vegetables to meat processing and harvested grains – and companies that process the products through to the people who consume them.

No Wiggle Room

Ensuring clean water and safe products that use water in processing is a fundamental obligation of government in Canada and other developed nations. Thus, the law leaves no wiggle room for businesses that allow water to become tainted and contaminate food, whether through sloppy procedures at a plant or just by accident.

At its most basic, the Canadian Food Inspection System requires that raw materials and ingredients are cleaned, sorted and prepared in a way that prevents contamination. In handling food, water – used for everything from washing fruit to cleaning machinery – can become tainted easily as microbes, bacteria and other pollutants are transmitted in one of countless ways. And when a food processor runs afoul of the law, penalties are fast, stiff and public.

At a minimum, fines for violations can begin as high as $60,000 per incident – and rise from there. If the government finds the cause is negligence, criminal charges may be brought against the business, its executives and key employees. Generally, expensive consultants and expensive lab work are needed to locate and remedy the cause of the contamination, and product recalls extract a high dollar cost.

Meanwhile, the company suffers enormous damage to its reputation.

Any time a food product is recalled, it attracts big headlines and extensive coverage on television and radio newscasts. The company must launch a far-reaching advertising and public relations campaign, first to alert distributors, retailers and consumers and then to reassure its customers that not only is every effort being made to ensure the problem doesn’t happen again but the steps it is taking to win back consumer confidence.

Indeed, one Harvard Business School study shows that even for a food processing company with an unblemished record of more than a century of providing safe food, it can up to two years to win back customers after a recall. Along the way, sales, margins and profits are adversely affected.

Easy Prevention

Yet it is relatively easy to prevent water used in food processing from becoming contaminated.

Preventing exposure to contaminated water reduces day-to-day operating costs, and can improve profitability along the way. So-called Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) in the form of full body suits that include a hood, a full face shield, goggles or a mask that forms a tight bond around the mouth and nose plus shoe covers sounds complicated but is easy to wear and inexpensive to purchase.

For example, a supplier such as CSC carries such safety wear starting as inexpensively as $180 per suit. Moreover, the cost of PPE is more than offset by its positive effect on production time and the quality of work as well as keeping not just the processing line safe from contaminants but also workers. In fact, often overlooked in a contamination-caused recall are work related injuries or sickness that arises when a worker becomes exposed to a contaminant.

The problems of contaminated water are not just an issue in third world countries. Even in Canada, it’s easy for H20 to become tainted, affecting food production, consumer confidence, and sales and profits. But it’s easier – and far less costly – to prevent a problem from arising in the first place.

Isaac Rudik is a compliance consultant with Compliance Solutions Canada Inc. , Canada’s largest provider of health, safety and environmental compliance solutions to industrial, institutional and government facilities.

E-mail Isaac at irudik@csc-inc.ca or phone him at 905-761-5354.