Corporate Quality Assurance Management
Robust audits are conducted by experienced auditors who inspect every plant for HACCP, sanitation and quality.
In addition, all sites are subject to audits by credible outside agencies, whose auditors have completed certified training through various accreditation bodies. Accreditation sets certain certification requirements, such as food safety management systems and HACCP.
Traceability
Our company has a meticulous traceability process in place. It begins with our ingredient suppliers and continues to the production plant, to the finished product and finally, to our customers. This intricate system relies on electronic systems and records to provide visibility into our supply chain. As an example, our detailed and thorough approach to traceability allows us to know the farm of origin for each hog that is processed daily at Hormel Foods production locations throughout the country.
Quality control team members are trained to trace inputs. Each Hormel Foods manufacturing facility holds a quarterly unannounced test to assess “real-time” system product traceability capabilities. This process brings visibility into the system and allows us to make continual improvements to it.
Labeling
Accurate nutrition labels are important to ensure our products are delivering the expected dietary needs of our consumers. We operate an ongoing program to verify nutrition labels. We also provide nutritional information on our product websites to give consumers easy access to this important product information.
All product labels are developed by our team of highly trained technical experts. This team has decades of industry experience in label development in accordance with mandatory and voluntary labeling elements.
We manage our labeling and formulation controls through integrated software systems. The systems maintain profiles of all ingredients and the associated suppliers, and are designed to identify all allergens (e.g., milk, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, sesame), sensitive ingredients (e.g., sulfate, MSG), country of origin, supplying production location, dates of purchase, nutrition information and other detailed specifications. All elements of these systems are maintained through a working relationship with our suppliers.