8.8 ETHICS IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Ethics basically refer to a systematic study of moral choices, and it is related to, but distinguished from, morals and laws.

      Morals are a set of principles used to distinguish right from wrong.
      Ethics conform to these moral principles.
      Ethics constitute a system of principles of personal behaviour that a
      person and a company adopt in daily life. Laws are developed
      politically based on the ethical pressures of the society.
      Laws are a set of rules passed by a government, consisting of
      both restraining and enabling legislation which is interpreted by courts
      and regulatory agencies.

The food industry has been slow over the last 100 years to move with society needs and has been subjected to many food regulations which are being constantly up-dated.

Workers in food product development have the dilemma of aligning what is 'right' according to cultural standards with company policy.

Generally speaking, each person in product development has their own set of standards which comes from their society and usually abides within them in their work practice. Why then is some of the behaviour of the food industry considered by society as unethical, so that many food regulations are imposed?

The problems are that society lacks commonly accepted standards of behaviour and often the unethical behaviour can be profitable in the short term. Standards vary from country to country, industry to industry and even from one situation to another. The product developer has a responsibility to evaluate society's ethics and abide by them, and sometimes taking account of more demanding standards which may be asked in the future. There may also be a dichotomy between the society's ethics and the company's ethics which the product developer has to reconcile.

There is a need for social responsibility by the company and by the individual in product development based on the ethical standards of both the company and the society.