Answer 1
The ten products that can be affected by a problem in the U.S. milk supply chain are raw milk, yogurt, butter milk, ice cream, whey protein powder, baby food, chocolates, cheese, milk protein concentrate, and cream.
Some companies make ice creams and other products using contaminated milk. As a lot of independent agencies and sometimes customers keep testing the good products, once it is known that the ice cream was made by contaminated milk, customers right away stop buying it because mostly the ice cream is eaten by the kids and can be very harmful. This results in decline in sales, losses, inventory management issues, problem in value chain and a hit on the brand name (BBC).
According to me, a lot of people are responsible. The milk producers who contaminate the milk for personal benefit, the middleman who adulterate the milk, the collection centers who are careless to do all the tests and sometimes ignore the results, the ice cream manufacturing company who knowingly or unknowingly uses contaminated milk to make ice cream and the government agencies who lacks the process that can stop this whole process.
Answer 2
“CRM” in itself can’t help however if intelligently use then yes, it can help in communicating the issues in the milk production supply chain. A Customer relationship management “CRM” is a software and concept which a accompany uses to manage all the interactions with customer; present and future. It is used to analyze the data related to customers and products to improve the business relationship and customer engagement (Robert).
As the ‘CRM’ system captures each and every communicational transaction with the customers, if this system is used, the representatives from the company would know about the customer while talking to them and if they already don’t know can educate them with the proper information without hurting the company. If the customer already knows and had some bad experiences, the representatives can acknowledge and share what the company is doing for damage control.
Answer 3
Yes, I agree with the capital punishment to middleman and life prison to the dairy boss for their roles in milk adulteration. Milk is consumed by everybody and especially the children. If the milk is contaminated and adulterated, it can lead to lifelong serious illnesses and even death. If somebody is doing this for mere profits and business, this is as bad as killing someone and thus capital punishment should be given. In the U.S. also, this should be implemented so that the practice of milk contamination and adulteration so that the milk is more pure and the bad practices can be eliminated from the dairy industry. This way people will be able to consume pure milk and milk products and enjoy a healthy and happy life (Cha).
Answer 4
Here are the three examples of instances that happened due to America importing milk and milk products from China:
When there was a scandal in 2008 in China about the contaminated milk, even though the United States of America, had no reports of such incident however the very famous candies ‘White Rabbit’ were recalled because the samples were found contaminated and adulterated with melamine a life threatening substance for kids and even adults (BBC).
In 2007, a lot of adulterated food items including dairy were reported in America which were imported from China. FDA refused the imports for many food items at that time to stop the health issues which were surfacing in children and public due to the consumption of these (Gale & Buzby).
Another instance in the same year 2007 of adulteration happened with the protein that was imported from China which was used in dog and cat food. This contamination resulted in kidney failures in animals (Roebuck).
In my opinion, it is a major risk for the companies in America if they continue to increase the imports from China both ethically and financially. With the increased instances and reports of bad products due to adulteration in the imported raw material creates a fear in the minds of customers who then avoid buying products from such companies which will create losses and damage to these companies.
Works Cited
BBC. “China Stops tainted Sweet Sales”. Web. Sep. 2008. April. 2016.
Cha, Eunjung. “In booming China, fraud on rise -- and it can draw the death penalty.” Web. Mar. 2007. Washington Post. April. 2016.
Gale, Fred & Buzby, Jean, C. “China and Food Safety Issues” July. 2009. USDA. Economic information bulletin number 52.
Roebuck, Karen. “Chinese Criticized in Pet Food Probe.” Web. April. 2007. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. April. 2016.
Shaw, Robert. “Computer Aided Marketing & Selling”. Jan. 1991. Butterworth Heinemann.
