Blog #2: Ethical Challenges in the Restaurant Industry

Ethical challenges that restaurant industry players have experienced are providing customers with unsanitary and unhealthy foods, overpricing cheap foods, and exposing customer’s personal information.

Obesity has become common amongst young people as fast food restaurants tend to sell products that are high in fat and sugar, paying no attention to health concerns. Only recently have customers become more concerned as health is declining due to poor diets. In effort to make as much revenue as possible, these restaurants are advertising unhealthy foods that attract their primary customers; young adults and children. These large franchises push kids to think that these products are what they are supposed to eat. As a result, more kids tend to become obese and form common health problems due to poor diets. Besides unhealthy foods, customer's should be aware of unsanitary foods as well. When thinking back to 2006, you will remember the E. coli outbreak that was connected to Taco Bell. Many customers were greatly affected as they became very sick. It is the restaurant's responsibility to provide people with food that is ensured to be safe and sanitary to eat. In response to this outbreak, I am certain that Taco Bell must have lost many customers [Voiland & Haupt 2012].

Large franchises in the fast food industry are also selling overpriced products. Single products are usually advertised showing huge discounts and savings, but usually people who go to fast food restaurants such as McDonalds or Burger King buy more than  a single order or french fries or a hamburger; they tend to buy the whole value meal. It’s not the single entity that can be expensive, its the meal as a whole that usually adds up in cost. People tend to spend more than they had originally planned, which in turn is how these fast food restaurants make revenue [Choi 2012].

Lastly, in the restaurant industry a current ethical problem is exposing the customer’s personal information. When they buy various products, they have the choice of paying with cash or credit. When they use their credit cards, some restaurants will give away or sell this information to other companies for use of selling other products or services. Other companies use this information to target these people with ads in which may appeal to them. If customers buy large amounts of food at a fast food restaurant, then they may be frequently seeing weight loss ads. At times, Information is not kept confidential [Sidel & Johnson 2012].
I believe that these ethical problems are slowly decreasing as regulations are becoming much stricter on businesses. Of course, there will always be disputes based on how the restaurant industry is wrongly advertising, overpricing very cheap, low quality foods and exposing our information. But, I believe that this industry has made increasingly positive progress in the past few years and will continue to improve in the future as standards increase and regulations are put into effect.

Cited Sources:

Sidel, R., & Johnson, R. (2012, March 30). Breach hits card processor global payments . . Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577313411294908868.html

Voiland, A., & Haupt, A. (2012, March 30).Usnews.com. Retrieved from http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2012/03/30/things-the-food-industry-doesnt-want-you-to-know

Choi, Candace (2012, September 13) McDonalds, and other Fast Food Chains, Value Meal Voodoo... Retrieved from http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/49022561/ns/today-money/t/mcdonalds-other-fast-food-chains-value-menu-voodoo/#.UHH9C45HkTM