Free essay: Food Poisoning Claims and Event Risk Solving

Cases of food poisoning have been on the increase in the recent past. In most cases, food poisoning claims can be defended successfully. However, the primary challenge of defending this type of claims is the difficulty to proof. It is also complicated for the claimant to effectively prove that a certain sickness was caused by the food bought at a particular restaurant and not from another source (Kovats et al., 2004). The increased claims of fake food poisoning in the recent past have forced various hotels and restaurants around the globe to unite to curb the situation. For example, BY hiring private detectives to investigate the cases (Wong & Cheng, 2015). This paper intends to discuss how hotels in Macau can handle cases of fake food poisoning and the types of false claims that hotel managers may expect.

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Explain how hotels in Macau should handle situations like the ones in Spain

Hotels in Macau can handle such cases of fake food poisoning through employing or implementing various key strategies that include; first, hotels in Macau should find out exactly what the claimant is alleging to have triggered the illness. For example, finding out if it was due to the consumption of a particular type of food or drink. This will help hotels in Macau to know where to start following up the claim. Secondly, hotels in Macau should ensure that they cross check the records to find out if there was another claim reported due to consumption of the same type of food. Checking the records will help to assess whether the food poisoning claim was genuine. For example, if there were no other complains that day it may be considered that the customer is facing it.

Thirdly, hotels on Macau should determine who supplied the ingredients contained in the meal and the number of people who ate that particular meal in question but did not show any sign of illness. This makes it hard for the claimant to file a successful case particularly if the meal in question was considered to be a popular choice and no other complain was reported (Ramos, 2004). Fourth. Hotels in Macau should aloes enquire from the staff whether the claimants is a regular customer or whether the hotel staff knows him. They should also inquire whether the claimants have any reputation of making such claims and whether he or she has succeeded in filing a lawsuit. This will help those in charge of the hotels in Macau to know whether the claimant is faking it. For example, if the claimant has a record of previous attempts of faking food poisoning the hotel's officials will indeed proof that the complaint is not genuine. Fifth, the staff in charge of Macau hotels may also use various media platforms such as Facebook to check if the claimant has posted an image that contradicts the event. For instance, if the claimant says that he or she was home sick due to food poisoning after consuming the meal, and after conducting a follow up the claimant happens to have posted an image about how the evening was great. This would suggest that the claim is not genuine and the client may be faking it.

The various types of 'false' claim hotel managers could expect

At any occasion, Macau hotel managers could expect various type of false claims from various claimants that may be seeking to file a lawsuit. The types of false calms that may be expected include; first, the claim that the food was undercooked. The claimant may claim that he or she suffered a particular health complication since the food was not well cooked. Most hotels ensure that cooked food is usually examined and tested by experienced chefs and staffs to ensure that the food is well cooked and fit for human consumption. It is very rare to find undercooked food being served to customers on any particular occasion or hotel. The hotel managers have tried to such false claims by ensuring that all the food is well cooked particularly the meat and also putting more emphasis on preparing the chicken meat since undercooked chicken meat has a higher chance of causing food poisoning. And in case the meat is being defrosted. The managers should ensure that the meat thawed throughout.

Secondly, the hotel managers could also expect false claims that the claimant suffered a specific health complication due to temperature abuse during food preparation. Temperature abuse mainly occurs when certain foods, such as sour cream, and chicken wings are left exposed to hot sunlight for long (Lai, 2015). When the food is exposed to high sunlight temperatures bacteria's, tend to grow at a high rate and they usually multiple after every five minutes thus increasing the chances of food poisoning. This hotel manager can prove that this is a false claim since the claimant does not know the kind of temperatures that the food was subjected to during preparation. The manager can, however, avoid such false claims by making sure that foods such as salads are refrigerated at very low temperatures to prevent bacterial growth. Also, the managers may ensure that the ingredients are kept separate at very low temperatures to avoid cross-contamination of the food

Thirdly, the managers may also experience a false claim of cross-contamination of the food while being served thus causing the claimant to develop various health complications. This can be considered to be a false claim considering that the claimant is not aware of the actual cause of contamination and also he or she is aware of the food handling procedures that are implemented in the hotel. Most hotels usually observe strict measures or caution when handling the food; therefore any claim of cross-contamination has a high chance f being overruled. The most effective solution that the hotel managers should implement is by ensuring that the utensils and the raw or uncooked food are kept separately and also ensure that the utensils that are used to prepare the raw food are not used when serving the customers.

Available evidence that can be used to support the ideas and solutions to the above calms

To ensure that the solutions to the various false claims are valid, the managers should ensure that they implement various compliance strategies. First, The manager's should ensure that food experts taste all the meat or food before it is declared ready for consumption. The food expert should also taste and make proper records that can be used as proof that the food is in excellent condition. Secondly, The hotel managers should ensure that health and cleanliness standards are maintained in the workplace by hiring a health or quality assurance officer who should ensure that all the working stations are clean, the utensils are clean and well stored and that there is no possibility of any contamination (Knight & Warland, 2005). The person in charge should also make proper records that can be used as evidence that the safety standards have been met. Implementing these strategies will eliminate any possibilities of a false claim by the customers.

Conclusion

Following the increased cases of fake food poisoning around the globe, there is need for the hotels to unite to establish common ground to handle these situations. The hotels in Macau can handle this situation by implementing various strategies that include, first, determining who supplied the ingredients contained in the meal and the number of people who ate that particular meal in question. Secondly, ensuring that the hotel managers cross check the records to find out if there was another claim reported due to the consumption of the same type of food. The hotel managers may also expect certain false claims such as the claimant suffered a specific health complication due to temperature abuse during food preparation and experience a false claim of cross-contamination of the food while being served thus causing the claimant to develop various health complications. Therefore, there is need to implement strict measures to curb the rising cases of fake food poisoning.

References

Knight, A. J., & Warland, R. (2005). Determinants of food safety risks: A multidisciplinary approach. Rural Sociology, 70(2), 253-275.

Kovats, R. S., Edwards, S. J., Hajat, S., Armstrong, B. G., Ebi, K. L., & Menne, B. (2004). The effect of temperature on food poisoning: a time-series analysis of salmonellosis in ten European countries. Epidemiology & Infection, 132(3), 443-453.

Ramos, F., Silveira, I., Silva, J. M., Barbosa, J., Cruz, C., Martins, J., ... & Alves, C. (2004). Proposed guidelines for clenbuterol food poisoning. The American journal of medicine, 117(5), 362.

Wong, J., Wu, H. C., & Cheng, C. C. (2015). An empirical analysis of synthesizing the effects of festival quality, emotion, festival image and festival satisfaction on festival loyalty: A case study of Macau Food Festival. International Journal of Tourism Research, 17(6), 521-536.

Lai Weiren, (2015) Talking About The Garbage Problem In Macao From The "Macau Food Festival"