A mouse, a snake and a pigeon enter a food package.

This is really not a joke

The most outrageous thing about the behavior of Tnuva and the Ministry of Health regarding the affair of animal parts in Sunfrost packaging, is not the direct damage to public health, but the insulting thought that if you do not take responsibility, you will prevent negative publicity

Nir Kipnis

08/21/2022

Sunday, August 21, 2022, 2:50 p.m. Updated: 3:10 p.m.

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The Sanfrost (Tnuva) product collected from the shelves by the Public Health Commissioner at the Ministry of Health: the former demonstrated stupidity, the latter - negligence (Photo: Image processing, Reuven Castro, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health)

The badass heroine of the weekend was undoubtedly the Sunfrost company belonging to Tnuva.

For those who have completely skipped the consumption of media in the last two days (and for his sake we hope also the consumption of frozen vegetables), here is the summary of the previous episodes: after the head of a mouse is found in a bag of cut green beans, a part of a snake is also found in the same product.

If it weren't so alarming, it could be funny: imagine the health seeker opening a bag of green beans for cooking and finding the remains of a reptile or a caterpillar.

Brrr...

What was even more serious than the findings, was the announcement that Sanfrost (Tnuva) was sued by the Ministry of Health to carry out a recall, but delayed.

do you understand

The Ministry of Health came "to mow down" and found itself breaking guard:

Say, are you the Ministry of Health or what?

Did you politely ask for a turn?

Isn't your first duty to protect public health, even at the cost of harming the commercial interest of a large food company?

I would applaud the Ministry of Health for a small oversight, but their arguments are alarmingly similar to those made in the Strauss-Alit affair, in which a salmonella type bacteria was discovered in the company's chocolate products.

In other words: not only commercial companies that naturally want to make as much money as possible, have learned to roll their eyes when the public interest is at stake.

The product suspected of having animal parts found in its packaging.

A blow to any food company, especially one that has invested a lot of money to brand itself as associated with healthy food (Photo: Public Relations)

But we didn't have excessive expectations from the officials in the first place, not least from food companies that seek to maintain an alliance based on trust with us, the consumers.

Take, for example, Tnuva on Shabbat as Sunfrost: just think how many times have you seen the company's advertisements that only the most selected vegetables are included in the packages?

How many hundreds of millions of shekels (in aggregate) has the company already poured into linking its brand with a healthy lifestyle?

And here - the head of a mouse, parts of a snake - maybe it's time to release "Collect Noah's Ark"?

Why is the disappointment with Tenuva (Sanfrost) now and Strauss (in the affair of the chocolate factory of Elite in the Galil landscape) so great?

Because if we have already despaired of the public servants and even of its elected officials, we at least hoped that large commercial parties (and after all these are the two largest food producers in Israel!) have some sense.

Let's take Strauss-Alit as an example: according to the company's own estimation, as a result of the salmonella in chocolate affair, it suffered hundreds of millions of shekels in damage (the direct damage is about 200 million shekels, the indirect damage - we estimated who will be saved?).

So it is true that in the case of Sunfrost, it is likely that no one will close the factories so quickly, but - will the public continue to purchase the company's products, which is considered a leading brand (to say the least) in the frozen vegetable market, as often?

Not sure - especially when today a snail was also revealed (allegedly) in one of the packages.

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Giora Bar Dea, CEO of Strauss Group. The company paid a financial price, he paid a personal price. A faster response to the crisis could have weakened both of them (Photo: Flash 90, David Cohen)

The old readers can recall Tnuva's reaction to the silicon affair in Aleppo - how arrogant and forceful the company was until it took responsibility for the mistake!

But in those times it was still understandable, the ability of a large commercial brand to control advertising was almost unlimited.

The rules of the game have changed: it is no longer enough to hint to the media about an ad boycott or file a silence lawsuit against it (and for the avoidance of doubt, as far as I know, no such action was taken during the recent consumer-image crises).

Today there is no point in denying, there is no point in hiding, there is no point in not rushing to take responsibility - because every consumer with a smart phone will take and share the photo within seconds - and in the aggregate will cause the company no less damage than it would have been caused by the biggest consumer journalist.

Therefore, the behavior of our food companies (and yes, the Ministry of Health as well!), is no less than outrageous, it is disturbing in its stupidity:

Moreover, one of the dangers that lurks in a large food company is fake news: without arguing against the authenticity of the photos of the animal parts from the packaging, it is easy to organize a fake photo in photoshop and put even a zebra or an anteater in the product packaging - precisely because of this the credibility of the food companies (and of Ministry of Health!) should be above all doubt.

We need to see them take responsibility for a hundred cases, so that for the 101st time, when someone seeks to take revenge on them through forgery, we will believe them that this time they have nothing to take responsibility for.

So what did we have here?

Two huge manufacturers that delay in taking public responsibility towards their customers, pigeon shots, animal parts - and above all this one health ministry that is a bit sleepy on its feet instead of protecting public health.

And this time friends, you can't blame the politicians, but the community breadwinners and public servants.

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• Snowfrost

• Ministry of Health

• Strauss

• elite