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Taco Bell Quality and ISO 9001

What Does a Taco Have to do with Quality?

Posted by Oscar Combs in Blog, Risk Watch 19 Feb 2015

wp5884726e_05_06One may ask what does a taco have to do with quality? Ask Taco Bell’s President Greg Creed and I’m sure he will tell you a lot. On January 19,2011 a lawsuit was filed against Taco Bell claiming their beef is only 35 percent ground beef and 65 percent other ingredients, such as binders, extenders, preservatives, and other additives.
Taco Bell has responded stating that their beef is 88 percent quality USDA inspected beef and 12 percent other ingredients, such as water, oats, seasoning, and other items one would find at home. You can find Taco Bells’ complete list of ingredients on the Taco Bell website.

Putting my Quality hat on for a minute, I see a couple of quality assurance issues with this case. It is my understanding that Taco Bell operates a Total Quality Management System (TQM) within its operations. A company’s quality management system has a couple of functions, such as ensuring that customer, statutory, and regulatory requirements are met.

 

I know a taco is only $.99, but according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) additives are not allowed on fresh beef and if beef is processed the additives must be listed on the label. It seems the “shell” of this case is that Taco Bell calls its beef “Seasoned Ground Beef”, but it should probably be labeled “Seasoned Processed Beef”, which would be more consistent with the USDA’s federal regulatory requirements.

 

The ISO 9001 quality management system (QMS) standard states in clause 7.2.1 Determination of Requirements Related to the Product that, “an organization is to determine its statutory and regulatory requirements related to its products”, in this case the seasoned ground beef. If the USDA states that fresh beef cannot contain additives and Taco Bell is advertising their meat product as “Seasoned Ground Beef”, then it would suggest that Taco Bell is not meeting the USDA’s regulatory requirements of disclosure of their beef product.

 

Like many others, I love Taco Bell and am a head tilting, taco-eating frequent customer, but if the USDA has regulatory requirements for beef, Taco Bell should possibly consider renaming their beef product. Select this link to read more about this case.
When a company is developing its quality management system, it has an obligation to ensure that its products or services are meeting statutory and regulatory requirements. It is the responsibility of the company to search out the applicable regulatory requirements pertaining to their product or service. Customers may be satisfied, but if the organization is not meeting regulatory requirements, it may open itself up to fines, penalties, and other liabilities.

 

Based upon the organization’s industry here are a couple of examples of regulatory bodies:

 

●United States Department of Agriculture (USDA);
●United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA);
●Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; and
●Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)

 

Customers may not be aware of the regulatory requirements, but it does not relieve the organization of its responsibility. Sometimes regulatory requirements are put into place to protect us from ourselves. Organizations normally identify regulatory requirements during the research and development phase of product or service development. However if an organization has not clearly identified its regulatory requirements it’s never too late. In the case of Taco Bell, one outcome of the lawsuit may involve them relabeling their beef product.

 

The Taco Bell lawsuit will no doubt have negative financial and time impacts on Taco Bell and most importantly, their image. That’s what quality is all about; a company working to satisfy its customers, statutory, and regulatory requirements. What does a taco have to do with quality? Ask Taco Bell.

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