CHARLOTTE N.C. Burger King Corp. is considering the outlay of an additional $500,000 on the evaluation and testing of toys that could be used as premiums in the burger chain’s kids meals, said Steve Grover, vice president of food safety, quality assurance and regulatory compliance for the quick-service giant.
His comments, delivered at the Food Safety Symposium held here last weekend, came as Mattel Inc. and other companies are contending with safety-related recalls of toys manufactured in China. Grover did not indicate that any of Burger King’s toys were among those that were recently found to contain lead paint or otherwise post a health hazard. Nor did he say if any of the toys used by the chain were made in China. Rather, Grover said, he was urging the company to take the step — a suggestion that wasn’t warmly received by some members of the organization, he acknowledged — as a precaution, both in terms of protecting guests and allaying concerns that could arise among parents.
He cited the request as an example of how his department strives to be “opportunistic” in learning from other companies’ mistakes or difficulties. Although he did not mention Mattel by name, he noted that a big toy company had run into problems because of concerns about the safety of some of its products. Grover said he is using that situation to press for more stepped-up precautions within his organization.
Noting how a contamination of lettuce had dropped the stock price of other restaurant companies, Grover also revealed that Burger King “put in about $2 million [more] into our program” for safeguarding the chain from lettuce-related foodborne illness.
The Food Safety Symposium is an invitation-only event sponsored by Ecolab and presented here by Nation’s Restaurant News.