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High Food Quality and Safety Standards
Topics in this section include:
Food Quality
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 have been at the core of Hormel Foods since 1891. He said, “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 all employees understand their importance and that our safety principles are constantly supported and reinforced by management.
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Food Safety Training
Hormel Foods invests substantial time and resources in developing a comprehensive training program for our employees to achieve our stellar food safety record. This program starts the moment an employee is hired and is reinforced with ongoing food safety education relevant to his or her job responsibilities. This training includes Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) Training, Better Processing School, in-house Quality Control University and job-specific training. We also reach out to provide training to our key co-packers to ensure they are adhering to our strict safety standards.
We have implemented robust food safety and sanitation systems which are based on HACCP principles to assure the safety of every product we produce. Oversight of our food safety systems is conducted by company personnel, independent third parties and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
To read more information about our employee training programs, visit the safety section of this report.
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Food Safety Technology
Hormel Foods believes in investing in technology that creates safe, quality products. In 2009, Vice President of Research and Development for Hormel Foods, Phillip L. Minerich, was recognized for his personal commitment to food safety when he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in Packaging and Distribution at the sixth annual Food Safety Leadership Awards.This award highlights the dedication of a cross-functional team of employees from Research and Development, quality control and engineering who are focused on developing and implementing food security systems. These processes focus on exploring new ways to use existing technologies, which includes reviewing peer-reviewed studies to determine if any new findings have application at Hormel Foods. Through this ongoing discovery practice, Hormel Foods has discovered and implemented a number of food safety technologies and strategies, including the use of High-Pressure Processing (HPP) to package protein products.
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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 third-party organizations. The quality, food safety and sanitation programs of suppliers who provide key ingredients to Hormel Foods are also evaluated by the same standards.
Modified Atmosphere Packaging
Hormel Foods uses a variety of packaging systems, including Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP), to protect our products throughout storage and distribution. MAP substitutes the atmospheric air inside a package with a protective blend of gases. This process helps ensure a safe and quality product through the shelf-life of the item.
Nutritional Verification
Each product formulation is analyzed annually to verify the nutrition information we print on a product label. To verify this information, everything is referenced to requirements and compliance procedures documented by a nutrition-verification program.
Training
All employees working with nutrition information are trained on mandatory and voluntary labeling elements.
Supply Chain System
We employ modified atmosphere packaging, nutritional verification,
training and a sophisticated software system to maintain an accurate
database of all ingredient and formulation specifications.
This system is designed to identify all allergens (i.e., milk, wheat, soy, nuts), sensitive ingredients (i.e., sulfate, MSG), country of origin, plant location, date of purchase, nutrition information and other detailed specifications. Based on the formulation for the product and labeling requirements, this software assembles the ingredient statement and other labeling elements to eliminate human error. All elements of this database are maintained through a working relationship with our suppliers.
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Management
Various committees are responsible for ensuring the highest food safety and quality standards. Some of these teams include:
- Functional Foods Committee: Reviews product labels and claims for accuracy using peer-reviewed materials;
- Food Safety Council: Analyzes food safety issues and conducts potential risk-preventative planning;
- Labeling Review Board: Reviews labels to ensure accuracy;
- Patent Committee: Reviews new proprietary product process and engineering invention opportunities;
- Claims Committee: Reviews and approves label and product claims.
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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 safe 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.
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