20 December, 2017

Criminal liability of food companies

The need for a plan of a Criminal Risk Plan or Program is for the sole reason that the criminal liability of the legal entity can be avoided or diminished if the company proves that it implemented a plan before the commission of the crime.

The possibilities of crime for producing and distributing companies of the food sector are very wide, even, they do not need to have collaborated in the same crime.  By law, the company is obliged to adopt measures that prevent crimes within it. The most common crimes in the food sector are crimes against public health and food security, crimes of misleading advertising and corruption in business.

Although a worker or natural person has been the cause of the crime, the new reform of the Criminal Code makes the company responsible in parallel. The organization will answer for the crimes of its workers. The sanctions may be economic, and may even lead to the disqualification or closure of the company itself. The Supreme Court emphasizes the need to generate a culture of respect for the Law.

The prevention by the industries of the commission of acts constituting crimes within them, is part of their ethical commitment and Corporate Governance. By implementing a Crime Prevention Plan, the company will promote the confidence of all its public in its business, in addition to reducing the commission of a crime to an accidental circumstance, probably without penalty. From LegaleGo Nutrition, we recommend the implementation of a Criminal Risk Plan, with the greatest hurry, for the tranquility of the company and social welfare. The objectives that we propose as food consultancy are:

• In case of crime, ensure that there is no possibility of imputation of society, or if it is unavoidable, mitigate the sanctions that could be applied.
• Avoid the Civil and Labor Responsibility of the company, administrators and managers of the same, in the event of a crime within the company or if it was carried out by one of its workers.

In this way, our mission is to create an action protocol, in which our experts identify the most susceptible risks, their probability of occurrence and the legal impact that it would entail for the company. We also carry out a review of the existing controls, to evaluate their effectiveness and establish improvement plans for them. After the creation of a Criminal Prevention program, also known in the Anglo-Saxon world as Criminal Compliance, the figure of the Compliance Officer as the control and compliance body of the program makes sense.

This figure can be integrated into the organization of the food business, as well as, it is possible to outsource such control. (LegaleGo Nutrition is made up of a multidisciplinary team specialized in food consulting and lawyers that, in addition to implementing a Criminal Prevention plan for your business, we offer you an outsourced Compliance Officer Service, or even, we provide the appropriate training to a member of your team to execute this function.