US Foods Receives 14th Annual Food Quality & Safety Award

US Foods has also invested in a number of new technologies aimed at improving the quality of its food products. Its online complaint system streamlines the complaint process, making it easier to catch and solve problems earlier.

Technology improvements extend to other parts of the company. For example, Stock Yards Chicago implemented a leaker reduction program earlier this year that involves both meat film wrappers and technologies to reduce leakage rates by about 1 percent so far this year. And its Las Vegas Stock Yard conducted a Lean Six Sigma project to reduce waste from the Roll Stock packaging line. One form of waste was leakers created by bone-in products that pierced the Cryovac film. The company added a bone guard to the product to remedy the situation, which the company says saves it $72,464 annually.

“From the beginning we developed a program that met the most stringent food quality and safety compliance,” Hernandez says. “As we looked at new findings from the industry and new technology, we tried to obtain it year to year rather than waiting for the regulators to react. When it comes to regulations there’s been a lot of changes but we, for the most part, have been ahead of them, whether it’s an approach to product sourcing or stronger management systems.”

Keeping Score

The company also is using a scorecard-tracking system to document, track, and trend its facilities’ food safety and quality key performance indicators. The same program provides customized charts for each of US Foods’ private-label suppliers and compares their scores against “best in class” and “worst in class” in their specific food category.

“This type of communication has made an impact and improved the suppliers’ performance significantly,” comments Hernandez, in some cases as much as 20 to 30 percent over previous period scores.

US Foods also has a customer education blog on food safety and quality topics to help customers learn about better, safer food handling and get the most from their food delivery. Recent topics include how to read code dates, improve food rotation in storage, maximize shelf life, and the best and safest food temperatures.

In addition, US Foods has developed a Supplier Expectations Manual (SEM) outlining its food safety, quality, packaging, and regulatory compliance requirements for all private-label products and for all facilities producing US Foods-branded products.

Image Credit: Chris Ryan Photography
The US Foods team members at Award ceremony, from left to right, Jeff Semanchek, director, supplier food safety and ­quality; Frank Ferko, director, distribution-FSQA; Jorge Hernandez, SVP FSQA; Stephen B. Posey, manager distribution FSQA – Central/Southwest Regions; and Roberto Bellavia, director, FSQA Stock Yards National.

“This is a living document and is reviewed regularly and updated as often as necessary to focus on the criteria that are important from a regulatory or food safety and quality perspective,” says Hernandez. Revisions and updates occur every two to three years to reflect emerging risks, changing regulations, and suppliers’ performance.

“The SEM is an important document in the training of all FSQA staff and contains general requirements for all commodities and category-specific expectations,” he adds. “The manual is provided to all prospective vendors and they are bound, by contract, to comply with it.” He says his staff or its representatives conduct regular onsite audits of facilities to verify SEM compliance.

Staying Nimble

This past summer, US Foods had to rethink how it will move forward in the wake of a failed takeover bid by rival distributor Sysco Corp., which terminated the potential merger in June after a U.S. District Court judge granted a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) request for a preliminary injunction. The reason: it feared the combination of the country’s two largest food service distributors would increase prices at food establishments nationwide and significantly reduce competition in the industry.