Responsible supply chain management – an analysis of Taiwanese gutter oil scandal using the theory of constraint

ABSTRACT

Food safety is one of the main concerns in many countries throughout the world. Failure to ensure food safety would result in significant health concerns to the general public. Despite much effort to improve food safety, many cases of food safety issues or even crises have happened around the world from time to time; it results in undesirable health problems. One of the recent food safety scandals that happened in Taiwan in 2014 was related to the usage of gutter/tainted oil by several oil suppliers. The series of food safety incidents affected 1256 businesses. In order to ensure a responsible supply chain, we analysed the problem using the theory of constraint. Some issues towards the root cause of the problem are suggested. The objective of our study emphasises on building a responsible supply chain and food safety regulation in order to improve food safety in Taiwan.

KEYWORDS:

• food safety
• Taiwanese gutter oil scandal
• food supply chain
• Theory of Constraint (TOC)
• problem-solving

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the editor and reviewers for their constructive comment. We also want to thank Professor Wu for helping in the methodology of the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.