Case No. 2- First Warnings

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Case no. 2- First Warnings Fred James, chief executive of Nutritional Foods Inc., a $50 million manufacturer of healthful foods, listened with concern as John Healy, his vice president for production, described reports that had come in during the past hour. The reports came from two county health departments, one in Seattle and the other in Southern California. In each case, the health department official reported a possible link between acute food poisoning of a child and an unpasteurized apple product produced by Nutritional Foods and distributed throughout the Western United States. The health departments had not yet ruled out all other possible causes. Additional information was not yet available, and Healy did not have batch numbers for the products in question. Nutritional Foods was rapidly becoming the best-known brand of natural or nonpasteurized foods in the Western United States. It made its products in two facilities, one in California's Central Valley and the other in a coastal city of Central California. Fresh fruit and vegetable products were shipped from growing regions throughout the West to these two facilities for processing and canning or bottling. The handling of nonpasteurized products was critical as contamination could occur in picking, transporting, or processing the fresh product. Distribution was also critical to the freshness and safety of the company's products. Daily distribution from the company's processing facilities in company-owned refrigerated trucks ensured freshness. Unpasteurized products had been popular in the health-food market for many years, but Nutritional Foods was the most successful of several companies seeking to appeal to the mainstream market as well as to the niche consumer. The company's success had led to its rapid growth and the construction of its new processing facility in the Central Valley. "OK,
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