Quality & Adulteration.

Do you restrict the definition of ‘quality’ to products?

I have been writing about the importance of quality for a while now, and I am convinced we do not focus on it enough.

So far, I have focused on industry and have been writing about the quality of products because it is easy to spot shoddy products, take photographs of them, record them, and write about their poor quality. I have not written about services because I could not unearth sufficient data on the subject. Neither was I? successful in unearthing data on the often-poor quality of reports and research. However, the Americans and English went to war against Iraq based on shoddy reports and inbuilt biases. I won't talk about this topic more yet, and I reserve my comments for a future leadership essay.

As at the beginning of the last century, we will suffer because substandard, bigoted leaders stride the world stage. Allow me to return to my original topic before I digress further.

The consumer must get good quality products and services. The value chain does not end with the farm or the production floor but terminates at the consumer’s doorstep.

Cooking Oil: Adulteration.

Why did I use an AI-generated cooking oil image in the blog banner? I moved to Calcutta (now called Kolkata) in 1993 to enter the world of edible oil and learn about the passion virgin mustard oil arouses in Bengali women. Manufacturers pass the oilseeds through a wooden expeller to make top-virgin mustard oil. The manufacturing process is slow, but the low temperature associated with a wooden expeller ensures that the color and aromatic compounds in the oilseeds remain ‘trapped’ in the oil. A steel, or metallic, expeller speeds up the production process and extracts more oil, but the high temperature of the process causes the aromatic compounds to evaporate. The oil produced is bland and does not add flavor to the cooked food.

Manufacturers want better profits, and consumers wish to use top-quality pungent oil, often creating a conflict between the needs of manufacturers and consumers.

The solution, then, is often to add aromatic compounds back to the oil. Since no one has proper standards for this part of the process, the consumer frequently receives adulterated oil.

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Adulterated oil in Kolkata, 1993. Adulteration by milk sellers.

A few months before I arrived in Calcutta in October 1993, over 1,000 people in Calcutta consumed adulterated oil, becoming paralyzed.

A few years later, I moved to Delhi, and we took a minuscule price rise on our refined mustard oil, often called ‘vegetable oil.’ We lost 25% of our business in a flash, motivating me to investigate the mystery behind this massive drop. I discovered that local milk vendors were our most significant buyers and adulterated milk with water, washing powder, and refined oil, which they used as emulsifiers.

I have spent many years in the food and health business and can write a short book on adulteration; however, I want to draw your attention to the importance of maintaining quality throughout the value chain.

Where does liability end? Who is liable for adulteration?

Who is responsible to the consumer?

The manufacturer produces products and services that adhere to specifications, ensuring perfect logistics and that expired goods are not in shops.

However, are companies liable for adulteration?

Please pause and think about various aspects of the question. If you are selling a branded product and some wicked person tampers with it after you have sold it, logic demands that the company not be liable. However, consumers buy your brand on trust, and whether or not you like it, you cannot always escape liability.

Companies are not responsible for adulteration in fruits and vegetables; it is the government’s job to control and punish criminals who adulterate food. However, many corporate entities (in India, at least) compete in this market and encourage consumers to download their apps and order fruit and vegetables from them.

I do not know a single consumer who buys fruits and vegetables only from one channel; most use a portfolio of providers—the food market, the app, or friends who claim to deliver products from their farm.

Who, then, is responsible—and liable—for controlling adulteration? If you cater to the fresh produce market, you are liable, and it is impossible to trace the source. In the long term, IT companies will lobby to place QR codes and stickers on every apple or cucumber, but that day is far away.

The danger of adulteration, or tampering, is that it produces substandard and dangerous products.

You must not confine the definition to food.

The essay focused on fresh produce—vegetables, fruits, eggs, meat, etc.—but the cancer of adulteration, or tampering, extends far beyond this business.

A few months back, the news of thirteen bridge collapses in the Indian state of Bihar set social media on fire. These bridges collapsed because the contractors mixed sand into the cement, weakening the structure.

Because the government went into "damage control mode" and made sure they diverted attention away from this terrible news, I could not track the damage that the damage caused.

However, we must remember that when we speak of quality, we must not restrict the definition to producing goods and services at the company level but extend the scope across the value chain. Second, we must include tampering within the scope of quality. Third, ensuring independent contractors track quality through the value chain is critical.

Quality is an attitude. Poor quality reflects character.

We waste too much time on useless conferences about quality and must invest sufficient time in planning and action.

I will end with a last observation: no country can hope to become globally competitive if it delivers shoddy products and services. If we are content with providing poor quality, it reflects on our attitude and character as much as on the process.?

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