Food Safety Practices
Our food is very personal to us. We eat the food we make and serve it to our families as well. Our employees follow rigorous food-safety practices and take part in state-of-the-art training programs. In addition to training employees, we regularly involve external experts to provide guidance to our quality and safety programs and speak to employees about new food safety practices.
But the work in food safety doesn't stop there. We continually invest in infrastructure improvements enterprise-wide to streamline and update our facilities with new tools, technology and designs that are a vital part of ensuring safe, wholesome food.
For our millions of consumers, plus our own families, we take food safety seriously every step of the way — from sourcing safe ingredients, to implementing appropriate shipping and storage, to packaging our food with clear and safe directions for microwave preparation. We have an extensive food quality checks and balances process with additional internal and external audits as well as an internal Food Safety, Quality and Regulatory Affairs team that monitors and audits the safety and quality of our food.
Additionally, as leaders in food safety, we have embraced the new Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and look forward to continuing to work with the FDA as this important new law is implemented.
How Is Our Food Made?
Our food is prepared to meet high quality and safety standards, and we are constantly enhancing our rigorous food-safety policies and procedures to reflect evolving scientific knowledge, consumer expectations and regulatory standards.
PEOPLE
Our food-safety culture extends through all levels of our company. From our CEO to every employee throughout Conagra Brands, we all understand that food safety is everyone's responsibility.
Our Food Safety and Quality team provides functional leadership in key areas and includes experts in:
- Food safety and quality in manufacturing and distribution
- Supplier food safety and quality
- Consumer affairs
- Sanitation
- Allergens
- Microbiology
- Thermal processing
- Religious certification (Kosher, Halal)
- Toxicology
- Chemistry
- Engineering
This team monitors food-safety and quality issues from farm to fork, from sourcing ingredients to producing and preparing food for delivery to customers and consumers.
We provide training programs and bring in outside speakers to teach our employees about food-safety practices. We have built a food-safety culture, and we encourage our employees to speak up and take action if they notice something that doesn't seem right.
PROGRAMS, POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Conagra Brands has programs in place to ensure high quality and to help prevent foodborne illness. Successful food-safety programs depend on people, and our people are trained extensively on safe food-handling practices and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), which cover hand washing, eye/ear protection, appropriate footwear and clothing, and proper hairnet use. The guidelines we follow reflect our commitment to food safety and quality and cover everything from how to inspect ingredients as they arrive to what temperature our food should be stored at as it leaves our facilities and travels to you.
SANITATION
Our food preparation facilities are cleaned regularly by highly trained employees using the industry's latest equipment and tools. We take our cleaning very seriously and dedicate time, resources and expertise to ensuring the food you love is made in a clean environment.
ALLERGENS
We understand that you depend on us to provide safe food and we take food allergies very seriously. We have stringent programs in place during every step of our preparation, storage and packaging stages to help ensure that the information printed on the label is accurate. This level of attention extends beyond our own facilities as we require all of our suppliers to maintain appropriate allergen-control programs and to provide documentation about any allergens in their facilities.
AUDITS
At Conagra Brands, we strive to be the best. We work every day to improve, and our robust internal audit program is a reflection of our commitment. The internal audit team helps us continually improve by visiting our facilities, suppliers and co-manufacturers to observe employee behaviors and ask questions about processes. Their work — and the hard work of every employee — forms the basis of our desire to be the best and to keep getting better. In addition, we have achieved certifications from independent and external food-safety auditors according to globally recognized food safety and quality standards, as outlined by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).
SHARING OUR KNOWLEDGE
As we enhance our own processes, it is a priority for us to share this information with our suppliers, other companies and government agencies, such as the USDA and the FDA. We share our learnings in relevant industry publications and participate on boards and councils dedicated to food safety.
Where Does Our Food Come From?
At Conagra Brands, we hold our suppliers to the same high standards that guide our business.
As a global food company, we source ingredients from around the world to deliver high-quality, flavorful and nutritious products. We only buy and use ingredients that comply with the appropriate regulatory requirements for food safety. Additionally, we use registered certification bodies to audit our suppliers' facilities on an annual basis against Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standards. We are proud to work with many trusted suppliers to bring you the food you love.