Adverse food safety events can have disastrous effects on branding and profitability. Because information today can go viral in a matter of hours, companies in the food and beverage industry are faced with increasing pressures to operate seamlessly, with little or no room for error.

Just in the first week of July 2012, I heard about two recalls. Mars Petcare US recently announced a voluntary recall on multiple product lines. Creating a choking hazard, small pieces of blue plastic made their way into its Pedigree dog food products during production. Similarly, Dole Fresh Vegetables announced a voluntarily recall of 2,598 cases of bagged salad due to a possible health risk from Listeria monocytogenes.

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