Odwalla According to the Seattle-King Term Paper

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Instituting these measures showed that the company was vitally interested in not only maintaining the company's integrity, professionalism and reputation but also in ensuring that the problems never arose again. Other methods initiated by the company included a program that would test heat cleaning of apples that would kill the bacteria while not affecting the taste of the apples. The company also introduced a process of cleaning and decontamination called "flash pasteurization, which "would guarantee that E-coli had been destroyed whilst leaving the best flavoured juice possible." (Companies 2005).

Some experts wonder why the company did not use the pasteurization method before the outbreak.

"Pasteurization, which involves heat treatment, would have killed the bacteria in the Odwalla products. Health officials said when people drink non-pasteurized juice, they run the risk of becoming sick. They suggest boiling juice first. But authorities also said most juices sold in stores are safe." (E. Coli 1996).

If the pasteurization, or lack thereof, was the culprit in allowing such an outbreak, then one of the simplest items of business for the company (and it would have saved them a lot of anguish, and money as well as the life of at least one child) was to institute pasteurization before the outbreak even took place. Though such a process is expensive to employ (at least initially) it would have been no more expensive than what the E. coli outbreak eventually ended up costing the company in the long run.

Though the company took pains to make amends for its mistakes and ended up becoming the leader in the juice industry in the fight against E. coli bacteria outbreaks, the tragedy still took place, and the toll on the company was enormous.

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It may have been a cost that the company (though it did not actively court) did nothing to stave off.

Instead of implementing industry safety measurements; "Odwalla steadfastly refused to pasteurize its juices claiming it altered taste and was unnecessary." (Companies 2005) According to Mallenbaker, the head of quality assurance, Dave Stevenson, was aware of the dangers and proposed using a chlorine rinse against bad fruit. Senior executives at Odwalla overruled him fearing that such a method would leave an aftertaste from their juices.

It seems as if the many positive steps initiated by the company after the E. coli outbreak was a response that was second to none. The steps the company took afterwards shone just brightly as methods that other companies could have, and probably did take notice of. The steps taken to prevent such incidences are just as bright in their lack of implementation.

What the company gained in experience from such an event could have been staved off by the same care if exercised before hand. That the company took the steps and followed through on the initiatives is an excellent sign that the company took the experience to heart, and hopefully will never have to be reminded of the disaster. If anything good was derived from this situation it is that society always grows stronger with learning, whether that society is a company producing apple juice or the consumers drinking the company's product.

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