FE 2200: Introduction to Supply Chain Management
Project Assignment No.1:
The Horsemeat Scandal
A case study on opportunism and poor governance along the food supply chain management.
By: James Condon
Student No. 116353943
Word Count: 1500 Words
Date: 14/11/16
Executive Summery:
•This report was prepared to show the Minister for Agriculture how opportunism and poor governance in the food supply chain lead to the horsemeat scandal. This report looks at the different forms of opportunisms which where used by companies during the horsemeat scandal, like moral hazard, adverse selection, complexity and asymmetric information. It also provides the Minister with ways
…show more content…
As stated by the Guardian, the FSAI found horse DNA in over one-third of the beef burger samples, and pig in 85% of them. The majority of the beef ready meals also contained pig DNA but not horse. One beef burger sample from Tesco turned out to be 29% horse instead of beef. 1(The Guardian 15/02/2013) The findings of the FSAI report revealed a system of gross negligence by certain companies to distort the food supply chain and profit from selling goods that were falsely labelled, so the consumer would buy them.
Opportunism:
When a person or company acts in opportunistic fashion they are seeking to benefit their own position through guile. It is clear based on the recent FSAI 's report that certain parties had been acting opportunistically with the production and supply of frozen beef burgers to the market. These findings were in relation to certain meat suppliers who had received meat from several different suppliers across Europe. This is evident with the false information they provided in relation to their products saying they were 100% beef, when in fact they contained certain percentages of horsemeat.