Publications

May 16, 2016
Article

Food Safety Economics: The Cost of a Sick Customer

By: Dina Gerdeman and John A. Quelch

Chipotle Mexican Grill’s ongoing struggle to win customers back months after a contaminated food crisis highlights the challenges companies face with keeping food safe.

Chipotle has seen its shares tumble and recently reported its first-ever quarterly loss... View Details

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October 2003 (Revised February 2004)
Case

Launching the European Food Safety Authority

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Hal Hogan

The first food safety commission is established for the European Union. How does it handle food safety, scientific evaluations, and people's attitudes toward scientific changes in food growing and processing--for example, genetically modified organisms? View Details

Keywords: Food; Safety; Nutrition; Policy; Food and Beverage Industry; European Union

July 2013
Case

Sample6: Innovating to Make Food Safer

By: Robert F. Higgins and Kirsten Kester

Tim Curran, CEO of Sample6, a start-up biotechnology company developing a novel food safety diagnostics platform, must decide how to partner with food industry players. How can he best convince leaders in this mature industry to adopt a new technology and improve food... View Details

January 2009 (Revised October 2009)
Case

GLOBALGAP: Food Safety and Private Standards

By: David E. Bell and Mary Louise Shelman

In response to new laws governing liability and several food safety scares in the 1990s, European retailers drove the creation of a universal production standard based on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for fresh fruit and vegetables and a third-party certification... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Food; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Safety; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe

2021
Article

Public Health Risks Arising from Food Supply Chains: Challenges and Opportunities

By: Lu Chen, Donovan Guittieres, Retsef Levi, Elisabeth Paulson, Georgia Perakis, Nicholas Renegar and Stacy Springs

Safe, healthy, and resilient food supply chains are essential to ensuring the livelihood and well-being of humans and societies, as well as local and global economies. However, the ability to provide and sustain access to nutritious and safe food continues to be a... View Details

Keywords: Food Safety; Adulteration; Malnutrition; Supply Chain; Health; Government Administration; Food and Beverage Industry

Find at Harvard

31 Jan 2019
Cold Call Podcast

How Wegmans Became a Leader in Improving Food Safety

Keywords: Re: Ray A. Goldberg; Food & Beverage

09 May 2018
Research & Ideas

A Simple Way for Restaurant Inspectors to Improve Food Safety

Restaurant inspectors can be the last line of defense between you and moldy bread. (HighLaZ) Simple tweaks to the schedules of food safety inspectors could result in hundreds of thousands of currently... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Food & Beverage

September 2015 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Merieux NutriSciences: Marketing Food Safety Testing

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

January 2016
Teaching Note

Merieux NutriSciences: Marketing Food Safety Testing

By: John A. Quelch

16 May 2016
HBS Case

Food Safety Economics: The Cost of a Sick Customer

when more than 50 people in 11 states were sickened by an initial E. coli outbreak. “Do those smaller local organic growers have the experience, resources, and commitment to test their products for various food View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

June 2020
Article

How Scheduling Can Bias Quality Assessment: Evidence from Food Safety Inspections

By: Maria Ibanez and Michael W. Toffel

Accuracy and consistency are critical for inspections to be an effective, fair, and useful tool for assessing risks, quality, and suppliers—and for making decisions based on those assessments. We examine how inspector schedules could introduce bias that erodes... View Details

Keywords: Assessment; Bias; Inspection; Scheduling; Econometric Analysis; Empirical Research; Regulation; Health; Food; Safety; Quality; Performance Consistency; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

2018
Working Paper

How Scheduling Can Bias Quality Assessment: Evidence from Food Safety Inspections

By: Maria Ibanez and Michael W. Toffel

Many production processes are subject to inspection to ensure they meet quality, safety, and environmental standards imposed by companies and regulators. Inspection accuracy is critical to inspections being a useful input to assessing risks, allocating quality... View Details

Keywords: Assessment; Bias; Inspection; Scheduling; Econometric Analysis; Empirical Research; Regulation; Health; Food; Safety; Quality; Performance Consistency; Performance Evaluation; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

SSRN

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2015
Case

Wegmans and Listeria: Developing a Proactive Food Safety System for Produce

By: Ray A. Goldberg

October 2004
Case

DNA Traceability at Maple Leaf Foods

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Joan McRobbie and Matthew L. Reisman

Maple Leaf Foods is concerned about the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease) issue in Canada and the reputation of Canadian meat products in the domestic and global markets. DNA can now trace products from sow and piglets to consumer pork products.... View Details

Keywords: Food; Globalization; Nutrition; Performance Efficiency; Performance Improvement; Safety; Technology Adoption; Food and Beverage Industry; Canada

October 2012
Case

Hill Country Snack Foods Co.

By: W. Carl Kester and Craig Stephenson

Hill Country Snack Foods, located in Austin, Texas, manufactures, markets, and distributes snack foods and frozen treats. The CEO is passionate about maximizing shareholder value and believes in keeping tight control over costs and operating the business as efficiently... View Details

Keywords: United States; Financial Strategy; Debt Management; Retail Trade; Risk Management; Food; Capital Structure; Corporate Finance; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Texas

15 Nov 2018
Book

Can the Global Food Industry Overcome Public Distrust?

JamesBrey Food is the largest segment of the global economy. It is also widely recognized as more critical for human health than any pharmaceutical drug on the planet. But significant changes in the industry are making people lose trust in many institutions involved in... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Agriculture & Agribusiness

Research Summary

New Technologies and the Future of Food and Nutrition

By: Ray A. Goldberg

Ray A. Goldberg has been investigating the impact of new technologies on, and the functioning of, the global agribusiness system in the twenty-first century. He is currently developing a seminar to bring scientists, business leaders, academics, and consumer... View Details

November 1999 (Revised December 1999)
Case

Safe Food Act, The: A Consumer Group's Perspective

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Hal Hogan

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is taking a position on creating a new safety leadership vehicle in the U.S. government. How should it plead its cause? What are the position merits and faults? View Details

Keywords: Food; System; Consumer Behavior; Government and Politics; Safety; Leadership; United States