Hormel Foods Named to 100 Best Corporate Citizens List for Third Consecutive Year

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Responsibility

March 7, 2011

Austin, Minn.

Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL) today announced the company’s ranking jumped 10 spots to No. 30 on Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s 12th annual “100 Best Corporate Citizens List.”

This is the third consecutive year Hormel Foods was recognized, ranking 40th in both 2009 and 2010.

“We are honored to be recognized for our long-standing commitment to corporate responsibility, and it is exciting to see our ranking increase this year,” said Jeffrey M. Ettinger, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer at Hormel Foods. “We believe this increase is a testament to the dedication of our employees who live out these principles every day and our focus to increase transparency through our reporting efforts.”

The 100 Best Corporate Citizens List is considered the most prestigious annual ranking of Russell 1000 Index companies and gauges performance in several key areas of corporate responsibility, including environment, climate change, human rights, philanthropy, employee relations, financial and governance.

The list is entirely compiled based on publicly available information, including nonsecure websites, government and regulatory sources, investment publications and nongovernmental organization databases.

Hormel Foods aims to publicly disclose information about its dedication to corporate responsibility each year through its corporate responsibility report and several other initiatives. The 2010 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report will be released in May.

To learn more about corporate responsibility and sustainability at Hormel Foods and to view the 2009 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report, visit www.hormelfoods.com/csr.

About Hormel Foods Corporation

Hormel Foods Corporation, based in Austin, Minn., is a multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer-branded food and meat products, many of which are among the best known and trusted in the food industry. The company leverages its extensive expertise, innovation and high competencies in pork and turkey processing and marketing to bring branded, value-added products to the global marketplace. The company is a member of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, Maplecroft Climate Innovation Indexes, Global 1000 Sustainable Performance Leaders and was named one of “The 100 Most Trustworthy Companies” by Forbes in 2010. The company enjoys a strong reputation among consumers, retail grocers, foodservice and industrial customers for products highly regarded for quality, taste, nutrition, convenience and value. For more information, visit http://www.hormelfoods.com.

About Corporate Responsibility Magazine, CRO Association and CRO Summits

20,000-subscriber Corporate Responsibility Magazine (www.thecro.com) is publisher of the 12th annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, among America’s three most-important business rankings according to PR Week. Over 200 large capitalization corporations and institutions are members of the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association (www.CROAssociation.org), representing 1,200+ individuals dedicated to increasing professionalization of corporate responsibility standards and practices. CROA has a formal partnership with NYSE Euronext. Corporate Responsibility Officer Summits (www.crosummit.com) are recognized worldwide as the leading events for corporate responsibility practitioners. CR Magazine, thecro.com, CROA and CRO Summits are managed by SharedXpertise Media LLC, with offices in Edison NJ, Cambridge UK, Brussels BE, and Singapore.