Unit 22:
Q1) explain with examples from the case above whether a duty of care existed between the businesses mentioned and their victims.
A1) there were some duty of care between the bread business and the customer. The premier foods spokesman said, “We apologise profusely for the distress caused as a result of the isolated incident.” They also said, “as soon as this complaint was made we stopped all bakery production at that site and appointed an independent specialist contractor to conduct thorough investigation.” This shows us that there is a duty of care between the business and the customer as they understand the mistake they have made and investigated further into the premises where the bread was made. Ronald Lim, also the owner of a Chinese restaurant almost served a sweet and sour sauce which had a mouse in the bowl and had been fined £30,000. This shows that the duty of care on the customers of the Chinese restaurant was not shown.

Q2) explain with evidence which suggests that the duty of care owed by these businesses were breached?
A2) the evidence which shows that the duty of care was breached by these businesses are that they failed to proceed with any quality checks on their products. If their checks had been completed thoroughly there would not have been bread or sweet and sour sauce with mouse’s in it. If this had also been completed the two businesses wouldn’t have found themselves in this situation of paying fines and affecting their reputation.

Q3) were the injuries suffered by the victims as a direct result of the breach duty of care owed? Explain your answer.
A3) Yes, the breach of duty of care directly had a correlation between the customer being ill and their product being affected. Due to the businesses failing to carry out their duty of care their customers suffered physically and emotionally which could lead to them never eating bread and sweet and sour sauce again. An example of the customer becoming distressed would be that Mr. Forse said he, “he couldn’t face eating anything.” This just shows us how emotionally impacted Mr. Forse had become.