Hello to all of you in the food industry, from the secret office of Pinky and the Brain! Today we are wondering why there is still doubt about using independent laboratories in the food industry….
Here, at our headquarters, we need to start voicing that industries are playing… not playing for fun, but, in actual fact, burning themselves with fire…. So, you have an internal laboratory? Run by the same person who has to decide if a product should be recalled? How could it be possible to ethically manage the pathogenic positive results obtained by your internal laboratory AND ensure the quality you are trying to sell to your client? Which obstacle would you rather choose? Re-testing your product until it is no longer positive for pathogens or discarding the pathogenic-present product your internal laboratory just identified?
Pinky and the Brain are so busy taking over the world, that we don’t have time to play ethical-police, but someone will have to start monitoring testing and implementing standards in the food industry!
Principles has become an “ancient” word that needs to be raised from the grave and enforced immediately… You may not realise it, but our consumers are actually still people that pay for products that should live up to the quality everyone is always using in marketing campaigns… and they deserve to receive an ethically correct product on the shelf every time they spend money on it!
Pinky and the Brain did some research on why independent laboratories are the only way…
Objectivity
The independent, off-site testing laboratory is focused on accredited, internationally accepted testing procedures to ensure accurate results – THIS IS THEIR MAIN FOCUS, NOT production of products but ACCURATE RESULTS!
Free from influence, guidance or control of interested parties
If you do not realise the importance of ethics, Pinky and the Brain cannot help you anymore…
Exists for only one purpose
And that is to provide objective analytical data on the quality of a product or process…. without knowing the inner workings and office politics of a facility and without being bound by the fact that the annual bonus of internal laboratory staff, depends on the number of products NOT recalled from the market!
Yes, we all know money is king and that the economy plays a central role in the decisions a company make… we can understand that it seems as if your own internal laboratory will cost way less, but Pinky and the Brain were shocked to realise that laboratory activities are riddled with such “hidden costs”, that even large, national laboratories in South Africa are fishing for international financial back up…
As Pinky always says to the Brain: stick to what you know! There is a reason why you produce food and not analyse it… this is actually a job only for the highly qualified, trained and ethically independent amongst us!
Till next time – yes, we do not eat everywhere
Pinky and the Brain!
