Products
Hormel Foods produces wholesome, nutritious, great-tasting and safe products that consumers enjoy around the world. Throughout each step of our production process — from concept generation to packaging — we focus on food safety, food quality and health and wellness.
High Food Quality and Safety Standards
Food Quality
Employees place sliced product into pockets before final sealing and distribution.
Our founder, George A Hormel, was known for having high standards. In fact, one of his many quotes frequently used around our company reflects how quality and continuous improvement has been at the core of the company since 1891 — “We should constantly set the standards of achievements higher and higher; employees should strive for uniformity in quality.”
The way to guarantee that we meet our food safety responsibilities is to ensure that all our employees understand the importance of food safety, and that our safety principles are constantly supported and reinforced by management.
Food Safety Training
Hormel Foods invests substantial time and resources in developing a comprehensive training program for our employees to achieve this quality. This program starts the moment an employee is hired, and is reinforced with ongoing food safety education relevant to their job responsibilities. This training includes Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points (HACCP) Training, Better Processing School, in-house Quality Control University and job-specific training. We also reach out and provide training to several of our key co-packers to ensure they are adhering to our strict safety standards.
We continue to develop HACCP plans to assure the safety of every product we produce is based on seven HACCP principles outlined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This includes detailed sanitation procedures and practices and involves routine audits of our HACCP and sanitation systems.
To read more information about our employee training programs, visit the safety section of this report.
Audits
All Hormel Foods and subsidiary facilities are audited for adherence to our stringent quality, food safety and sanitation programs by internal staff as well as by several third-party auditing organizations. The quality, food safety and sanitation programs of suppliers of key ingredients are also evaluated by internal staff, as well as by several third-party auditing organizations.
Sharing Best Practices with Industry Partners
Training and sound science are vital to food safety best practices. Hormel Foods shares food safety best practices with industry partners because we believe in the importance of learning from each other and improving as an industry.
For example, our foodservice sales representatives are trained on the latest food-handling procedures. This training includes the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s ServSafe program. This one-day training course covers topics such as cleaning/sanitizing, serving, storage procedures, purchasing ingredients, types of contamination and proper food handling techniques. To see more information related to ServSafe, visit their Web site at http://www.servsafe.com.
New Food Safety Technology
A cross-functional team of employees, including Research and Development, Quality Assurance and Engineering, from our corporate offices and plants, continues to evaluate and adopt new technologies to help ensure that we have robust food safety systems in place.
For instance, our Research and Development division generates many ideas for new procedures and technologies that enhance our food safety activities, including TrueTaste™ technology — a key process in our innovative Hormel® Natural Choice® product line, which uses High-Pressure Processing.
Innovative Products
As a trustworthy provider of safe, wholesome, nutritious and great-tasting products, consumer loyalty is always at the forefront. We generate value for consumers by creating innovative products that fit their changing needs, by growing new product sales for long-term growth for our shareholders and by remaining true to our hardworking employees. We are proud that 34 of our brands are No. 1 or No. 2 in their respective market categories.
New Product Innovation
In 2006, Hormel Foods set the ambitious goal of reaching one billion dollars in sales by 2010 from new products introduced since the year 2000. We achieved $1.3 billion in sales in fiscal year 2008 — two years ahead of schedule.
Through growth driven by innovation, we aim to reach $2 billion in total sales of products created since 2000 by the year 2012.
Building on this success, the company announced the Go for $2B by 2012 goal, which aims to achieve growth through innovation — $2 billion in total sales of products created since 2000 by the year 2012.
Hormel Foods was able to meet the initial challenge earlier than anticipated because of the success of new products developed across all five of our business divisions — Grocery Products, Refrigerated Foods, Jennie-O Turkey Store, Specialty Foods and International. These new products continue to expand the portfolio of products offered by each division, which then combine to form a balanced business model.
Hormel® Compleats® are shelf-stable microwavable meals that offer convenience and value for consumers.
In fiscal year 2007, we released a host of new product innovations across several product lines. The Hormel® Natural Choice® line was extended to chicken breasts, roast beef, uncured bacon and Canadian bacon, and Farmer John® California Natural*® sausages. Our 10-oz. product known as Hormel® microwave trays was repositioned as Hormel® Compleats®. In early 2008, the green label Hormel® Compleats® microwave meals, which meet government requirements to make a health claim for such criteria as fat, calories, fiber and sodium was launched. Other new products introduced in fiscal year 2008 were Dinty Moore® Big Bowls, Hormel® Natural Choice® pepperoni and salami, Austin Blues® pulled chicken and Farmer John® California Natural*™ seasoned boneless pork chops, Hormel® Chili Master™ and a new sandwich variety of Hormel® Party Trays.
Innovation Requires Collaboration
The company established the Research and Development division in March 1956 to “improve not only the methods Hormel Foods uses, but the products that Hormel Foods offers the consumer.” In addition to microbiologists and chemists, the Research and Development division houses the company’s food scientists and corporate chefs who work with product managers and customers to develop new products and recipes that meet the emerging needs of the consumer. This team also works in conjunction with a New Products Development team.
We also find ways to get employees in our corporate office involved in the product development process because we know our toughest critics are our own employees. Through tasting panels and food diaries, employees are invited to participate in the innovation process and help evaluate our products. We also have ongoing projects with research-based organizations and universities around the world.
This collaborative spirit has also led to the creation of the Culinary Enrichment and Innovation Program (CEIP), which is a partnership between the company’s foodservice division and The Culinary Institute of America. CEIP was created to build tomorrow’s culinary leaders through a unique leadership program with an elite class of commercial and noncommercial chefs from around the United States. The program includes four, three-day educational sessions that focus on creativity, innovation, leadership and management.
Innovation Across the Globe
The Hormel Foods Idea and Innovation Center in China opened in February 2008.
Innovation at Hormel Foods expands beyond our U.S. operations, as evidenced by the opening of the Idea and Innovation Center in the Baoshan District of Shanghai, China. The 5,000 square-foot center opened in February 2008 and will facilitate the entire creative process, from ideation to testing and manufacturing, with a focus on developing products for Asian consumers. The facility also includes a sensory panel room for the evaluation of products, as well as a fully functional duplicated plant.
Healthy Options
Hormel Foods is concerned about health and wellness, which is why we offer a variety of products that meet consumers’ needs for low-sodium and all-natural products. In 2007, we removed more than 560,000 pounds of salt from our existing product line. In 2008, we removed an additional 436,738 pounds of salt from our existing products.
Jennie-O Turkey Store® offers deli meats that include less sodium.
Since early 2007, Hormel Foods has further reduced the sodium in 76 of our lower-sodium products by an average of 32 percent. Many of our lower-sodium products also meet the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s guidelines for a healthy lifestyle.
The sodium-reduction goal at Hormel Foods extends across our lower-sodium product portfolio and includes some of our most popular brands. For example, consumers can now enjoy further-reduced varieties of Hormel® less-sodium chili and Hormel® Black Label® lower-sodium bacon.
Farmer John® provides fresh quality pork to the West.
Approximately 40 percent of the innovation results at Hormel Foods are products falling under our health and wellness initiative. Product lines such as Hormel® Natural Choice® meats, the green label Hormel® Compleats® microwave meals and Jennie-O Turkey Store® items have proven to be popular with consumers.
In addition to products available to consumers, Hormel Foods has developed an offering for restaurants that includes recipes with less than 500 calories.
Our product portfolio is wide-ranging and offers consumers pork, beef, turkey and chicken, as well as additional offerings, such as bouillon, salsa, tortillas, sauces, couscous, pasta and olives.
Health Benefits from Our Products
The health benefits of eating high-quality, protein-rich foods is well documented as a way to obtain necessary nutrition. Hormel Foods offers low-fat protein full of flavor.
Several of our products have been recognized for their healthy attributes:
- Hormel® Natural Choice® deli meats were recognized as the “Best Packaged Cold Cuts” product from Men’s Health magazine for its 2007 and 2008 Nutrition Awards.
- Women's Health magazine featured Hormel® Natural Choice® deli meats, Hormel® Roast Beef Au Jus Refrigerated Entree and Saag's® chicken brats in their second annual "125 Best Packaged Foods for Women" article.
Responsible Marketing
As reported in the past, we market our products through a variety of efforts, but do not target children with advertisements.
Continuous Improvement
It is important we understand consumers’ tastes, ideas and concerns in order to continue producing flavorful, nutritious, quality products. Our Consumer Services group fielded 132,000 contacts in fiscal year 2007 and 156,000 in fiscal year 2008 via e-mail, toll-free lines and online.