Journal of Corporate Renewal

April 2016

Steven Agran, CTP, is a principal at MorrisAnderson, where he oversees the firm’s Northeast/Mid-Atlantic practice. Based in New York, he specializes in family-run businesses and takes active senior management positions. He is a CTP, a CPA, and a CIRA, and he holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Agran is treasurer for the TMA New Jersey Chapter and a TMA Global board member, and a recent co-chair of the TMA Mid-Atlantic Symposium.

Keith DeHaan is the managing principal of Food and Livestock Planning Inc. He manages the overall technical, financial, and personnel resources for each of the company’s projects. Previously, he was vice president, technical operations, with Beef America Packing Company, where he managed research and development and food safety/quality and performed new business development. Raised on a family cattle feeding and ranching business in South Dakota, DeHaan was also founder and a former investor in Ranchers Gourmet, a specialized meat retail business located in Kansas City.

site inspections, using their own regulatory agencies before approvals are granted, and some contract these inspections through the USDA.

Countries set their import requirements based on their expectations of meeting minimum food safety standards, but some countries also use these requirements as protectionist measures to control the volume of imports. One example involves countries in the European Union attempting to protect their own domestic production through the use of EU standards on beef imports.

The presence of mad cow disease in 2003 prompted many countries to close their borders to U.S. beef imports. The hysteria was finally overcome and most countries have reopened their borders to U.S. beef imports. However, many import regulations are intended to totally eliminate the chance of contaminated meat from entering a country.

For example, Japan and South Korea have restrictions banning beef imports from cattle over 30 months of age because of the statistical impossibility of a young animal having the disease. Numerous regulations have also been implemented in the U.S. since 2003 to eliminate the chance of meat from infected cattle from entering commerce.

As new international treaties such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are signed, barriers to entry into foreign markets will diminish, but the concerns over food safety are likely to increase over fear of illnesses from foreign products. Attempts to balance regulations across borders will result in requirements for higher levels of compliance for treaty participants.

Dire Consequences

Stringent regulations, while sometimes cumbersome and unquestionably more costly to meet, are now the norm and not the exception in the U.S. food industry.

Food safety at all levels of the food processing industry will always remain at the forefront and must be maintained at the highest standards.

As a turnaround consultant or an interim manager in the food service sector, underestimating the importance of the attention to food safety will have dire consequences. J

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