Sargento Foods Wins 2020 Food Quality & Safety Award

About a year ago, the company expanded the size of its corporate microbiology laboratory so it could consolidate testing in one location. The company also invested in a laboratory information management system to further enhance data integrity for the micro lab.

Another multi-million-dollar investment across all Sargento Foods facilities enhanced the separation between high care and low care manufacturing zones. High care areas are where the cheese is exposed in some way or when it is converted, for example, from a block of cheese into slices.

The company typically purchases 40-pound blocks of cheese, converts them into different shapes, and then packages them. It works closely with suppliers to provide the high-quality cheeses when it comes to taste, texture, and freshness. A set of Wisconsin-licensed cheese graders sit on the quality team, professionals unique to the state, who assess inbound cheese for key attributes such as color, flavor, pH level, and appearance. They also ensure that the cheese has the right knit or body to withstand the conversion process. When the cheese arrives, it often has secondary packaging that has to be removed. It is then taken to a room where it can be shredded, sliced, or converted into sticks. The highest opportunity for microbial, physical, or chemical cross-contamination occurs when the cheese doesn’t have packaging protection, so conversion and packaging are performed in the high-care areas. “We have to make sure we have the right protocols in place to protect the product at all times during the entire manufacturing process,” Krishna says.

Food Safety Plans

Sargento Foods has established several distinct food safety plans to ensure that biological, physical, chemical, and radiological issues are controlled and that the products it produces are safe and in accord with the Food Safety Modernization Act, says Young. The company’s food safety plans are based on the Codex Alimentarius principles of food hygiene established by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1963.

Sargento Foods also has comprehensive preventive programs in place, including (but not limited to) environmental monitoring, pest control, preventive maintenance, sanitation, allergen control, food safety and quality training, supply chaing control, and recall.

When it comes to pest control, for example, Jennifer Weber the company’s quality systems manager, says that Sargento Foods conducts a shadow audit with an employee who makes sure that everything is checked by the third-party agent. The company randomly checks pest traps by placing a business card inside them to make sure the pest-control operator is actually checking every trap when he or she is on site.

The plans have helped lead to improved Global Safe Food Initiative audit ratings by the BRC in 2020. “In 2020, all of our manufacturing facilities received an ‘AA’ BRC rating,” says Kerry Kremer, the company’s senior vice president of manufacturing and engineering. The “AA” is the highest BRC rating for a planned audit.

Krishna says that the company’s food safety plans are robust and comprehensive. “It’s a dynamic document, which means we continuously pressure test it against new risks that come up, and we do an audit against that plan,” he says.

The company shares the audit across the organization and shares important information with its suppliers. It has a program called “Audit Ready All Year” so that employees and factories are ready for an audit at any time. Protocols for managing the food safety plans also are in place. A cross-functional team at the plant level meets at least once a month to discuss any issues and corrective measures. Also, a corporate-level committee, which Krishna, Kremer, and others sit on, reviews food safety and quality initiatives and investments at least on a monthly basis. “I think we have a great check-and-balance. [We] make sure … our plan is doing what it’s designed to do, which is to protect the food, protect the brand, and exceed stakeholder expectations,” Krishna says.