ONE hundred and ten tons is a lot of chicken, even if frozen. That was the quantity of this meat discovered in a Riyadh warehouse this week, which upon examination, was found to be rotten.

Now it is possible that this stock of condemned meat was the direct result of the consumer boycott, kicked off on social media, because of the steep price hike that seems to have become a traditional part of the holiday preparations. This being the case, it is hard to feel very sorry for the merchants. The problem has arisen as a result of their own greed.

It is of course also possible that the meat was spoiled because of the failure of the refrigeration system, though it is hard to imagine any reputable food company not having back up systems for such an eventuality.

Then there is the third, and perhaps most alarming possibility, which is that this meat was bought by the dealer, in the full knowledge that it was no longer fit for human consumption. The plan may have been to foist the chicken on to a food processor, who perhaps might not have been too particular about the origin of his inputs. In such circumstances, the dealer and very probably the manufacturer as well, were buying the putrid meet cheaply, expecting to profit handsomely by selling it at full market price.

The dangers of contaminated meat of any kind, but particularly of chicken, with the high risk of salmonella or other food poisoning, are well known, not least to the food industry itself. For us, the consumers, there is a basic assumption that the food that we buy in restaurants or at the store, is safe and fit to eat. There is a simple trust that we hand over our money for meat that will do us no harm, for food that is wholesome and in-date.

Unfortunately for the majority of honest food dealers and retailers in Saudi Arabia, when that bond of trust with the public is broken, everybody in the food business suffers. It could be argued that the effect of these scandals in compounded by the reluctance of the authorities to name the businesses involved. Time and again, we read of eateries that have been discovered to be preparing food in unhygienic conditions and been closed temporarily until the problems are rectified. But we are left to guess the location of the offenders.

This anonymity must also frustrate the food inspectors, who go to such lengths to clamp down on the insanitary and the cheats. The only way people are likely to hear of a serious case of bad hygiene is by word of mouth, and rumor alone is a poor way of passing on such information.

It could be argued that in a good number of cases, such as this latest discovery of rotten chicken meat, what the businesses involved have done, is little short of criminal. Had somebody died from eating this rubbish, they could have faced prosecution, imprisonment and fines, to say nothing of civil actions claiming large amounts of compensation.

In a bustling consumer society, such as we have here in the Kingdom, reputation counts for a great deal. Anecdotal research suggests that when it comes to groceries, people tend to use the same stores and buy more or less the same brands, week in, week out.

If however manufacturers, retailers and eateries that had flagrantly disregarded, not only the regulations, but the health and well-being of their customers, were named publicly when action was taken against them by the authorities, then maybe they would be shamed into mending their ways. They would come to appreciate that it is not just consumers’ money they are trying to gain, but their trust as well.

In the United States and Europe, companies go the extra mile, and then some, to protect the reputation of their products. (They are less caring about their services, where automated telephone response systems now act as virtually impenetrable barriers between unhappy users and the business). Social media have only enhanced the impact of bad products. In the US, the Riyadh dealer in rotten chicken meat would not only have been named, they would probably have been out of business within hours. If the health authorities did not shut the firm immediately, the majority of consumers would have straight away given up on their products.

We need that sort of rigor here in the Kingdom, so that filthy eateries and polluted foodstuffs become the rare exception. Naming and shaming the guilty would be a good start.