Food Safety Information

The Company has always been at the forefront when it comes to Food Safety and Quality—it’s in our name. For over 10 years QF&V has had independent third party inspections of its facility by Primus Labs, a well-respected food safety expert in the industry. Quality is of the utmost importance to us and to our customers and consumers. Our food safety practices allow us to produce fresh products that consumers can trust. By constantly reviewing and improving our procedures to remain ahead of industry-best practices, we keep true to the Company’s Mission statement.

Quality assurance starts with good manufacturing and good handling practices as required by the Company’s Food Safety and Defense Manual. Our food safety policy details the practices that are required of every supplier that does business with us as well as for own facility. This includes:

• Product Specifications
• Good Manufacturing Practices for:
• Field packing
• Secure storage
• Re-packaging

• Supplier facility audits
• Mandatory third party inspections and testing
• USDA inspections and testing
• Traceability
• Product handling practices for cross docking and transfer

Personal hygiene practices are required of all employees and training is provided on a regular basis and for all new food handlers. Hair and beard restraints, hand washing procedures and hand sanitizers are provided throughout the facility. Disposable gloves are utilized to avoid bare handling of the product. The Company provides employees with uniforms that are cleaned and pressed by a third party supplier on a weekly basis. All employees are required to monitor the adherence to these practices and supervisors schedule regular inspections to document compliance and utilize this time for training.

The warehouse is secured around the clock and security cameras are in place inside every cold room and outside the warehouse to monitor all activity. Outside visitors to the facility are required to have badges and document that they have read and understand good manufacturing processes before being allowed entry.

Traceability

In order to have traceability it is necessary to be a direct receiver of the products or track them through bar codes or other means the source of every product shipment. Each year the Company conducts mock recalls to insure that in an emergency we are able to locate each customer purchasing the “recalled” product and that the product is traceable to the source.

Receiving

The Company, we follow strict receiving, storage and shipping standards with a state of the art temperature-controlled dock, temperature-controlled storage and picking rooms and refrigerated delivery trucks capable of maintaining the proper temperatures required to ensure the freshest products.

• All transportation haulers are required to follow strict guidelines for cleaning of the trucks prior to hauling and recording that proper temperatures have been maintained for each load.
• Drivers are not allowed to open their doors until the product is ready to be unloaded and the trailer is properly docked and sealed to outside temperature.
• Once the products are unloaded, QF&V inspects every shipment for pulping, sanitation, temperature recordings during shipment and other signs of damage or tampering. Products not meeting our strict standards are rejected immediately and, if necessary, a USDA inspector is summoned to document the rejection
• Every product that enters our facility is dated and labeled for traceability.

Inventory Management

QF&V monitors the temperature in each cold room multiple times a day to ensure each room is maintained at the proper temperature. The seven different temperature rooms store different products at optimal temperatures: 32 to 35 degrees for lettuce, cauliflower, mushrooms, parsley, cilantro, corn and other legumes; 32 to 34 degrees for apples and pears, 34 to 38 degrees for citrus and cantaloupes, peppers at 44 to 48 degrees, eggs at 44 to 48 degrees, bananas at 56 to 66 degrees. The picking room for packaging products is maintained at 40 to 44 degrees.

We are inspected annually by third party inspectors, Primus labs, to ensure our food safetyprocedures are being properly followed.

 

Shipping

QF&V trucks are pre-cooled prior to loading. Our quality assurance managers inspect each order prior to loading to ensure we are shipping quality products and that the customer order matches the delivered product.

Each delivery truck is required to have curtains attached so as to ensure the cold chain at the time of delivery. Every product shipped is palletized so that contact with moisture during delivery in minimized.

Quality

Another important part of ensuring food safety is our involvement with growers, national distributors, trade associations and government agencies. We strive to keep current on the latest regulatory issues, best practices and technology available to the fresh produce industry.

At QF&V, we guarantee our product and replace any shipment not acceptable to our customers, often in the same day.

 

 

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