FOOD QUALITY AWARD - Food Quality & Safety

Application for

Food Quality Magazine’s

8

th

annual Food Quality Award

Table of Contents

Section Page #

Introduction_______________________________________________________________4

Question 1 In the last 12 months, has your company invested in new technologies to improve the safety and/or quality of your products? Please describe these investments._______________________________________________________________5

Question 2 Do those investments also provide environmental benefit, such as reduced waste or energy efficiencies? Please explain how they do this._____________________28

Question 3 In the last 12 months, has your company invested in employee training to improve the safety and/or quality of your products? Please describe these investments.______________________________________________________________31

Question 4 Can your company provide tangible proof that the safety and/or quality of its products has improved due to that training?______________________________48

Question 5 Does your company have a HACCP program? If so, please describe it.__50

Question 6 Does your company use independent auditors to conduct quality, vendor and sanitation audits? If so, please describe them.______________________________57

Question 7 Can your company provide evidence of a good relationship with the community? Please describe this relationship and what has been done to enhance it._______________________________________________________________________75

Question 8 Can your company provide tangible proof that its investment in quality assurance has provided a positive financial return? Please give some examples._____90

Question 9 Can your company provide tangible proof that its investment in quality assurance has improved product shelf life? Please describe the evidence to support this._____________________________________________________________92

Question 10 Can your company provide tangible proof that its investment in quality assurance has reduced customer complaints? Do you have any numbers to support your answer?___________________________________________________93

Question 11 Can your company provide tangible proof that its investment in quality assurance has led to a quantifiable reduction in pathogen activity? Do you have any numbers to support your answer?__________________________________ 94

P.O. Box 558 – Baldwin, Georgia 30511

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Question 12 Please tell us why your company should be considered for the

Food Quality Award (300 words or less)._____________________________________95


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Introduction

Company Overview

Fieldale Farms is a family owned north Georgia company. We were founded in 1972 by

Joe S. Hatfield and Tom Arrendale. Our name, Fieldale, is derived from their names.

Today the company is being managed by the second generation, their sons, Joe W. Hatfield and Gus Arrendale.

We employ over 4,500 employees, are vertically integrated, and are one of the largest independent poultry producers in the world. This integration allows us to produce superior baby chicks and to monitor them through their life cycle. We are the only poultry company in North American that owns 100% or its pullet houses so we have total control of our foundation stock.

We had the first USDA Certified Microbiological and Chemistry Laboratory in our industry. Over 30,000 assays are performed each month and our laboratory is federally accredited for pesticide analysis and nutritional label analysis. Also, our feed mill is ISO certified.

Fieldale Farms is fully compliant with the National Chicken Council’s humane farmed initiative program and are the only poultry company to receive the American Humane

Association’s “Free Farmed” endorsement for our Springer Mountain Farm Antibiotic

Free Program. A full-time veterinarian and nutritionist are employed on out technical staff.

Our Corporate headquarters is located in Baldwin, GA with three processing facilities located within a 35 mile radius, the Further Processing Division in Gainesville with raw supplier plants in Murrayville and Cornelia.

Further Processing Division

Fieldale Farms-Further Processing Division requests to be considered for Food Quality

Magazine’s 8 th annual Food Quality Award. The Further Processing facility has 900 employees and produces breaded and marinated, ready-to-cook and fully-cooked products.

These produces include wings, tenders, popcorn, nuggets, chunks and marinated filets.

Further processed product has become an important item in the busy lives of today’s consumers. With the assistance of our Research and Development Lab, Test Kitchen, and our Further Processing Team, Fieldale works with customers to develop new products for their specific needs. At Fieldale we think of our customers as partners. We’re committed to providing them the freshest, best-tasting products and will work with them to meet their needs for packaging, portioning, and delivery. This is a priority to Fieldale, as we know that our success is built on making our customers successful. One of the most critical facets of Fieldale Farms success is that we consider our customers, employees and even our competitors to be among our closest friends.


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1.) In the last 12 months, has your company invested in new technologies to improve the safety and/or quality of your products? Please describe these investments.

Yes, technological innovation drives our industry. We have an initiative to move to more complex products to meet our current customer needs while welcoming more demanding customers. Implementing our industries new technologies means significant capitol investments that our owners are welling to make. Also, updating and maintaining the requirements for our facilities effectiveness are continual. Each investment is described below as either a Food Safety or Food Quality investment.

Food Safety



X-ray Technology. For over 10 years Fieldale Farms has used X-ray technology to screen for bone, and foreign material, in our more susceptible products. In these types of products the bone is embedded and non-visible. Periodically, as detection technology has evolved, we have invested in these improvements. Recently, we invested in a new system that should improve our detection and bone elimination process by 10%.



Metal detection systems. As with X-ray technology, Fieldale Farms has used metal detection as final screening process on our processing lines. Our metal detection program includes screening products for potential Ferrous, Non-Ferrous and

Stainless foreign material. As this technology has evolved with improved detection and elimination processes we have invested in these improvements. Our recent reassessment and evaluation of new metal detection systems have resulted in another investment in this area. This new investment should improve our current precision and minimize number of false rejections.



Work-in-Process enhancements. Our processes are complex with multiple product handling steps. We have an ongoing philosophy of continuously researching opportunities that will improvement handling and minimize potential for product contamination. Work-in-process containers have a potential to also be a source of product contamination. Recently we have invested in containers that minimize this potential.



Sanitation technology. Because we are a food processor the importance of

Sanitation is continuously emphasized in our processes. New technology is always welcome. One recent purchase made to enhance facility sanitation is a new detergent foaming additive designed to enhance chemical adhesion and retention time. A second investment involved new fogging equipment to increase sanitizer coverage including the top and underneath the processing equipment. Also included in our investment toward sanitation is new equipment to enhance sanitation of product transfer belts. Please see FMC Microbial Control-HRS document.



VOLTA belting. Maintaining sanitation of belting used for product transfer is an ongoing opportunity. There are many types of belting that are specific to products


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and processes. As a sanitation enhancement in our micro sensitive lines we recently replaced our more difficult to clean Intralox UHMW belting with a smooth surface continuous belting. This is a recent innovation in our industry which will reduce water usage and time required to clean these light and medium weight belts. The previous belting had clips and required disassembly for a thorough cleaning. This new technology yields extremely hygienic, cut- and abrasion-resistant smooth surfaces. It is made of homogenous Thermoplastic-Elastomer, is non-absorbent, and is ISO 9002 Certified. These are known as the “blue line” belts. This enabled a portion of the supporting structure to be removed due to the reduction in weight from the conventional belts. These belts are easy to clean, remove, and install. They are scratch resistant and do not contain harborages for bacteria.



Hand Washing. This is critical step in assuring wholesomeness of our products.

Maintaining paper towels available at each hand wash station, their subsequent disposal and potential for incidental product contamination has been an ongoing issue. Recently, after much research we invested in high velocity hand dryers to replace paper towels used in processing areas. This reduces potential for product contamination.



Employee Garment Program. A critical supporting program of our employee

GMPs is our garment program. The sanitation of our garments directly relates to the wholesomeness and shelf life or our products. While reassessing this program we choose to invest in the G&K Prosura program. We believe this investment will enhance the wholesomeness of our products while minimizing the potential for reduced shelf-life. Please see G&K supporting document and Letter.



ATP Luminescent. For many years Fieldale Farms has measured ATP residue as an indicator of effectiveness or our sanitation programs. This technology gives us a real-time measurement with an opportunity for immediate corrective action prior to operations. Recently we re-evaluated this program and upgraded our software.

This upgrade enables us to identify trends and isolate opportunities for improvement. Please see Charm Certificate of Calibration and novaLINK

Introduction.

Food Quality



Marel TSM. Product consistency is critical to our Quality Assurance program.

Since our products will be re-constituted by an end-user, maintaining product consistency to reach a re-constitution temperature within specified parameters is critical. This is critical for both Food Safety and for meeting customer expectations. To improve product consistency while exceeding our customer expectations we have invested in Marel Template Slicing Machines. Please see

Marel TSM documentation.


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

Stork RevoPortioner. Restructuring portioned products while maintaining a natural product texture has long been an opportunity for Quality improvement in our industry. We have recently invested in a new technology that will maintain an accurate shape and weight that is necessary for a consistent cook time, while maintaining texture and structure for optimum mouth feel. Please see

RevoPortioner document.



5-Star Breading Applicator. Opportunities for improvements in breading application have been on-going in our industry. Breading application is usually a 3 step process that includes steps for application of a pre-dust, a batter and then a breading. Potential defects in Quality can include incomplete coverage, inconsistent texture, poor adhesion, and inconsistency in amount of each ingredient. We have recently invested in a new technology in this area should improve our product consistency while helping to meet our customer’s expectations.



Intellijet Cutting System. To improve consistency we have recently invested in new water jet portioning technology. This will reduce variance of our portioned controlled products while enabling us to continue to meet our customer expectations. Please see Intellijet Robotic Water Jet Cutting System documents.



Marel Product Sorter. To reduce variation in raw material our initial raw material, investments have been in technology to sort our raw material into distinct types prior to portioning. By minimizing this variation our final product consistency is improved.



Packaging enhancements. Our products are fragile and are prone to breakage while handling and during packaging. One of our on-going goals for quality improvement is opportunities to minimize defects, i.e. breakage and breading voids, during packaging. This past year we invested in new technologies that are processing aides to minimize this potential defect. Please see forming tube curtain.



Marinating processes. Consistency in mixing and adding marinades to our products is a critical Quality Control Point in our process. We are continuously researching new technology to enhance the massaging and absorption of the marinades into our products. Recent investments in this area have been in mixing to improve ingredient dispersion and vacuuming to improve product absorption.

The following supporting documents include:



FMC Microbial Control-HRS - 1 page



G&K supporting document and Letter – 4 pages.



Charm Certificate of Calibration and novaLINK Introduction- 2 pages.



Marel TSM – 1 page.



RevoPortioner – 1 page.



5-Star breading applicator – 1 page.



MP Equipment Intellijet Robotic Water Jet Cutting System – 8 pages.



Forming Tube Curtain- 1 page.


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2.) Do those investments also provide environmental benefit, such as reduced waste or energy efficiencies? Please explain how they do this.

Yes, Fieldale Farms has long believed in conservation initiatives for the environment. For many years, when applicable, we have used corrugated from recycled materials and all company trucks operate on bio-diesel from by-products. A few environmental and waste benefits from recent investments include:



Work-in-Process enhancements. Our investments in this area has reduced our plastic and corrugated waste by 80% for one product.



Sanitation technology. Has continued to reduce our water usage. See graph for gallons water per pound product.



VOLTA belting. The investment in the new “blue line” belts has decreased daily cleaning time, decreased time required to remove, soak, scrub framework, and reinstall, decreased labor needed to clean, decreased volume of water to perform first rinse and remove large pieces of material due to the quick release of material from the belting material, and thus, decreased the volume of waste water to treat.



Hand Washing. Currently the dryers have reduced our paper towel waste by 25%.



Marel TSM machines for one product reduced our product waste by 8%. To date this improvement correlates to a reduction of 36,000 pounds in potential waste.



Stork RevoPortioner. To date this improvement correlates to a ½% reduction of product waste, or 6500 pounds.



5-Star Breading Applicator. Initial data show a reduction in breading waste of

50%. Also, this applicator is capitol of replacing 3 to 4 pieces of equipment on the processing line. This is should reduce our parts inventory and maintenance waste.



Intellijet Cutting System. Intellijet portioners reduce our product waste percentage by 5%. After installation our trim percentage immediately improved from 35% to

29.6%. See graph for filet sizing trim pounds.




Gallons of water per pound produced.



Filet Sizing Trim Pounds-Net


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3.) In the last 12 months, has your company invested in employee training to improve the safety and/or quality of your products? Please describe these investments.

Yes, training is on-going at Fieldale Farms for both Management and hourly Team members. Internal training includes programs for Quality, Sanitation and Food Safety.

External training includes Sanitarian Certification, HACCP certification, SPC implementation, Marinating procedures, and Sanitation and Biosecurity programs:

Internal:



Quality/Food Safety Boot camp information and certificate – each quality technician is issued a notebook and certified through a three day training. This training is also given to processing personnel as necessary criteria for advancement. Through this training the procedures for measuring product attributes are taught and employees responsible for processing our products are given a greater awareness of our customers expectations



R-Square Food Safety and Sanitation – R-square is our chemical sanitation vendor who comes in quarterly to perform training for sanitation, production and, when applicable, maintenance personnel. The have a Director of Food Safety, Dr. Carol

Jones. Dr. Jones has provided training on performance of effective sanitation and its relationship to Food Safety to the sanitation department personnel. In early

October, training on pre-op inspection and Food Safety was also provided to entire

QA department, some of maintenance and production supervisors and employees.

This training included photos taken at the plant during equipment breakdown for deep cleaning procedure. The impact of equipment design and how it relates to sanitation and Food Safety was evident to everyone present. It is impossible to inspect what is not accessible. Also, the importance of continually updating the

Master Sanitation Schedule also became very clear. Approximately 60 personnel were present. o In late October, 2008 R-Square Products presented a 3-day Food Safety

Workshop in Gainesville, GA. Team members attending included the

Production superintendent, Maintenance Manager and employees, QA supervisors, and Sanitation supervisor. Topics presented were: 8-step

Cleaning Process; Sanitation Chemical detergents and sanitizers, their appropriate uses, concentrations, and effectiveness; Food Defense;

Allergens; Listeria and Niches; Food-borne Illness; Sanitation Audits;

GMP’s; Maintenance of an effective Master Sanitation Schedule; Sanitary

Design and Innovations; and Food Safety from a Maintenance Perspective. o Hands-on training during sanitation process has been on-going with the

Sanitation employees since late October through December, 2008.


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Employees have stepped up and are diligently working toward Listeria-free equipment and environment with support from upper-management and R-

Square training. o Annually, a master training schedule is reviewed between R-Square and

Fieldale Farms Management.



UT Food Vulnerability Assessment – Fieldale Farms sponsored University of

Tennessee to come on-site and perform in-house training to Team members for

Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment. With this training Fieldale Farms personnel have a greater skills set to assess potential areas of Food Vulnerability.



Annual Employee Re-orientation – through electronic system each employee on their birthday is designated for re-orientation. This re-orientation includes areas of

Quality, Food Security, Biosecurity, HACCP, GMPs and other areas critical to performing their duties.

External:



AIB International Food Processing Sanitation/Hygiene – Team members are sponsored to achieve this training through a correspondence class. This class includes 19 modules with each module independently graded.



HACCP certification by International HACCP Alliance – the University of Georgia

Continuing Education offers this class this certification annually. Each year we sponsor Team members to attend and achieve this certification.



Meat and Poultry Marination Shortcourse – The University of Georgia Food

Science Department offers this short course annually. Each year we sponsor Team members to attend this class and to achieve their certificate. Mixing of ingredients and proper marinating is a critical quality control point in our process. This greater awareness should help our products consistency and thus help meet our customer’s expectations.



Statistical Process Control Implementation - Fieldale Farms is a processor and reducing process variation is critical for improvement. Teaching Team members

Statistical Process Control is a pathway to improvement. The University of Georgia

Food Science Department teaches this course annually. Each year we sponsor Team members to attend and achieve their certificates.



North Georgia Technical College Computer skills – administrative Team members are encouraged to enhance their computer and database management skills. Team members complete this training with greater confidence and their additional skills set improves their efficiency.


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

QC Boot Camp Training agenda with example certificate – 3 pages



R-Square Training Table of Contents with example certificate – 2 pages



R-Square Correspondence



UT Food Vulnerability Assessment Table of Contents with supporting letter – 3 pages



Example of Annual Employee Re-orientation forms – 2 pages.



AIB Food Processing Sanitation/Hygiene example certificate



HACCP example certificate



Meat & Poultry marinating example certificate.



Statistical Process Control (SPC) for the Food Industry certificate.



Computer training example certificate.


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4.) Can your company provide tangible proof that the safety and/or quality of its products has improved due to that training?

Yes, for safety we measure pre-operational and operational sanitation criteria that reflect improvements in this area. For quality customer satisfaction and plant efficiency key performance indicators are measured and have shown improvement. Each of these quantifiable results are graphed and reviewed monthly and tangible proof can be offered by this data. Descriptions of each are described below:

Safety



QA inspectors are more diligent in their sanitation inspections and more discrepancies are documented than prior to training. Many equipment modifications have occurred due to the increased awareness of Food Safety,

Listeria, and Sanitary Design. Many changes have been made to improve cleanability and eliminate niches. One can look at the pounds of product that were on hold previously due to micro contamination and compare that to the pounds currently on hold, the number of occurrences, and the time between occurrences to know that training and follow through by management and hourly employees have made a significant impact.



Auditing and verifying Pre-operational and Operational sanitation operating procedures are part of our day to day operations. When comparing noncompliances for 2008 to 2007, pre-operational non-compliances decreased

(improved) by 28.3% while operational decreased (improved) by 10.5%. These improvements can be correlated to our on-going training.

Quality



Customer complaints are measured for number complaints per 500,000 pounds sold. As quality has improved the amount of complaints for our top five customers by volume has improved by 35.7%. This is discussed in detail in question 10. Please see question 10 with supporting graph.



As our quality has improved so has our Customer Satisfaction. With this improved satisfaction we have been able to Achieved Reduced audit Self-Certified status by customers. This is discussed described in greater detail in question 8. Please see question 8.



Our enhanced quality training has improved our ability to produce quality products by Doing It Right the First Time. We have premium First Quality products and nonpremium Second Quality products. Second Quality products are by-products generated when producing First Quality products. First Quality products are our premium products that meet our primary customer’s expectations. Second Quality


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products do not meet our primary customer’s expectations and are redirected to another buyer at a lower value. There are numerous quality defects that can result in a product being re-directed to Second Quality. A quality standard not met may include: incorrect portion weight, poor breading coverage, incorrect piece count, broken product, poor craftsmanship i.e. twists, folds, miss-cut product, etc. With our enhanced quality training our percentage of Second Quality products for 2008 has decreased by 2.14%. Our percentage for December 2008 was 4.16%. This is the lowest for all of 2008. This is a direct reflection of Doing It Right the First Time.

This is discussed in greater detail in question 10 with supporting graph. Please see question 10.



Retaining inventory has decreased with our improved quality. When comparing retained inventory for 2008 to 2007 there was a 36.9% reduction. This is a direct correlation to improved quality procedures and Doing It Right the First Time.


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5.) Does your company have a HACCP program? If so, please describe it.

Yes, Fieldale Farms had initiative to implement HACCP prior to regulatory (January

1998) or customer requirements. Our plan was first implemented in 1995, is dynamic, and has continued to evolve with our industry. We have seven plans with each plan specific to a unique product or process. Dependant upon process our HACCP critical control points range from one to five CCPs. Due to the potential risk of our products, our HACCP plans are a critical area of our Food Safety program. Presently, we are currently researching a new process that will require an eight plan.

Internally each plan is re-assessed at least once per year. A minimum of once per 5 years we have external consultants reassess each plan. A reassessment is also performed prior to any process or raw material change. A critical part of our on-going training is Team members obtaining their HACCP certification from an International HACCP Alliance recognized institution. Presently, we have 34 Team members that have achieved their certification.




Table of Contents from HACCP Manual listing each plan



List of HACCP Amendments resulting from reassessments



Compliance Safety Inspector Reassessment for 2008



External Third Party Reassessment/Validation for 2007


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6.) Does your company use independent auditors to conduct quality, vendor and sanitation audits? If so, please describe them.

Yes, externally each of our vendors is required to supply annually an independent third party audit. In-house independent third party audits are performed annually for quality, food safety, sanitation and animal welfare. Also, we have several customers who perform their own audits. Dependant upon the criteria, an audit may be either announced or unannounced. In addition, on-going in-house audits are performed by certified auditors for each of these areas. Fieldale Farms believes these audits make us better and are an opportunity for continuous improvement.

The following supporting documents include audit summaries for:



Randolph Associates Food Safety Systems and Sanitation Audit



Yum’s Quality Systems Assessment



Yum’s Food Safety Audit



PMC Poultry Animal Welfare Audit



NSF Cook & Thurber Food Safety, Quality and Food Defense Audit



Steritech Process Audit



Steritiech GMP/Food Safety audit

 Denny’s Quality Assurance/Process Vendor Audit



KFC Animal Welfare Audit


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7.) Can your company provide evidence of a good relationship with the community? Please describe this relationship and what has been done to enhance it.

Yes, we are a family owned company whose founders have strong ties to our community.

Fieldale Farms was founded by Joe S. Hatfield and Tom Arrendale in 1972. Our company name is derived from their last names. We are currently being managed by the second generation, their sons, Joe M. Hatfield and Gus Arrendale. Many opportunities in our community have been created, many of which go un-recognized. Fieldale Farms believes in tangible support as well as being a good neighbor. Our processes and products if not properly controlled could have an impact on the current and future state of our community. Fieldale Farms strives to advance our relationships with business and regulatory agencies so that the goals of both met to serve the community and that we set the precedent for excellence. Listed below are evidence of tangible support, public responsibility and what has recently been done to enhance our relationship.

Tangible support includes: United Way, Boys and Girls Clubs of Hall County, Salvation

Army, and many charitable foundations.



United Way. Fieldale Farms actively supports the United Way through periodic chicken sales and employee contributions. These sales are 4 times per year and are held by management and employee volunteers. Prior to the sales advertisements are distributed through the community. All profits go the United Way and the community is able to purchase products below market value. Also, all management and a percent of employees contribute to United Way through payroll deduction.



Boys and Girls Clubs of Hall County. Management at Fieldale Farms serves on the

Board of Directors and we actively support their mission of creating a positive place for youth and having a positive impact on our entire community. Our active support includes: o Selling Raffle Tickets – To aide the clubs, businesses in our community will periodically give a donation that can be raffled for financial support. o Future for Kids Gala/Diner – This is an annual fund raiser where dinner is served and a guest speaker is present. Fieldale Farms annually purchases a table and sells another table. o Lunches/Meals – During holidays, or for a week during the summer, Fieldale

Farms will donate and prepare poultry products to be served at meals. o Rubber Duck Derby’s – This is the clubs biggest fund raiser of the year and is a great family event held every spring. The club makes available for adoption 12,000 rubber ducks that is dropped in Lake Lanier and, with the aide of jet skis, races to the shore. Fieldale Farms actively supports this event through donations, actively selling adoptions and volunteered labor.



Support for Salvation Army o Food o Bell Ringing


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

Other support. In addition, we have records for January 2007 through December

2008 that show tangible donations to the following organizations: o Disabled Veterans o Hall County Humane Society o Good News at Noon Mission o Sharing and Caring o South Hall Food Bank o White County Food Bank o Unseen Hands o Rope International o Immanuel House o Good Samaritan o North Side United Methodist Church o Camp Hope o HCHS Raider Football Team o First Baptist Church of Gainesville o Hall County Fire Marshall o Towns County Food Bank o Lavonia Baptist Church o Camp Hosanna o Toccoa Soup Kitchen o Habersham Bank

Public responsibility:



Wastewater treatment is extremely important. Wastewater content is constantly monitored and periodically observed by government agencies. There have been no sanctions or notice of noncompliance with governmental or local requirements for air, water or solid waste discharge.



Wellness program. Employees, and spouses of Fieldale employees, who are enrolled in our health insurance plan are offered free diagnostic testing each year. These tests are provided during normal work hours to help identify serious health risks.

Those who are found to be at high risk are then offered personal counseling and/or fitness programs designed to reduce the chances that a serious health problem develops.



Drug-Free Workplace. It is the policy of Fieldale Farms to provide a workplace free of the influence of illegal drugs, alcohol, and controlled substances. Being and remaining drug-free is a condition of employment. The consumption, possession, or distribution of controlled substances and alcoholic beverages on Fieldale property is strictly forbidden. Employees testing positive for the influence of drugs or alcohol have an opportunity to resign their employment or to adhere to the provisions of

Fieldale’s substance abuse policy. In some instances this may mean sponsorship through rehabilitation. Offering and sponsoring employees through rehabilitation supports the employee and the community.


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

Continuing education. Fieldale has sponsored employees to continue their education to achieve their GEDs or other opportunities. We have worked with local community and state colleges to bring our business and learning closers. This includes our local technology college to design courses with learning’s applicable to our processes.

Enhancement

This past year we appointed an Environmental Safety Officer. He has state certification and performs weekly unannounced audits pertaining to environmental opportunities. His audits include all areas our processes including Maintenance, Sanitation, Wastewater,

Production and Storage. Each audits deficiencies’ have to be corrected within 24 hours.




United Way Letter

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Chicken Sale Flyer

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Chicken Sale Dates for 2009

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Boys and Girls Clubs of Hall County Letter

 Boys & Girls Clubs “Thank you” memo.



Future for Kids Gala/Dinner – 2008

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Future for Kids Gala/Dinner - 2007

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Rubber Duck Derby – 2008



Rubber Duck Derby – 2009

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Email from Disabled Veterans



Letter from Disabled Veterans



Letter from Salvation Army


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8.) Can your company provide tangible proof that its investment in quality assurance has provided a positive financial return? Please give some examples.

Yes, our investment in quality assurance has shown improvements through enhanced customer satisfaction, continued growth opportunities and improved plant efficiencies.

Enhanced customer satisfaction has resulted in increased confidence. With this confidence we have achieved reduced audit status and self-certified status from customers. This has a financial impact through a reduction in product sampling, reduced distribution compliance audits, and reduced external third party audits. When performing distribution compliance audits our customers pull random cases from distribution warehouses to be evaluated for compliance by their quality staff. This is a condition of doing business and Fieldale incurs the product and laboratory cost. By achieving reduced audit status we have financial savings. A part of doing business is a willingness to incur the cost of Food Safety/Quality

Audits. By achieving self-certified status the number of audits has been reduced.

Customers that may have required two audits per year are now requiring one.

With our improvement in customer satisfaction we have achieved continued growth opportunities. This is shown by our increase in pounds sold. Our total pounds sold increased by 7% for 2008 versus 2007. With one customer alone we had an increase in pounds sold of 61%. This increased volume has a direct impact on lowering our overhead cost. This reduction in overhead cost is beneficial to all of our customers.

Plant efficiencies experienced a financial return by Doing It Right the First Time. We have

First Quality products and Second Quality products. First Quality products are our premium products that meet our primary customer’s expectations. Second Quality products do not meet our primary customer’s expectations and are redirected to another buyer at a lower value. There are numerous quality defects that can result in a product being re-directed to Second Quality. A quality standard not met may include: incorrect portion weight, poor breading coverage, incorrect piece count, broken product, poor craftsmanship i.e. twists, folds, miss-cut product, etc. As amount of First Quality products increases overall plant efficiency improves and process cost is reduced. This is a direct result of the greater financial return of First Quality products. Second Quality product not only have a lower financial return but also have a greater cost due to the add additional cost of harvesting, grading, and packaging.

For 2008 our percentage of Second Quality products has decreased by 2.14%. Our percentage for December 2008 was 4.16%. This is the lowest for all of 2008. This is a direct reflection of Doing It Right the First Time. Please see the following graph.


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The following supporting document includes:

Further Processing Second Quality graph.

Further Processing

Second Quality

6.50%

6.23%

6.00%

5.50%

5.00%

4.50%

4.97%

4.63%

4.80%

4.77%

5.37%

5.31% 5.35%

5.36%

4.00%

6.30%

5.55%

4.16%

3.50%

3.00%

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec



Cost of retained product was also significantly reduced with our investment in quality assurance. Our product is frozen and is stored in an outside cold storage facility 9.2 miles from Fieldale Farms-Further Processing. We incur a handling and monthly storage fee from our cold storage facility. When comparing quantity of retained inventory for 2008 to 2007 there was a 36.9% reduction. This reduction in retained inventory is a positive financial return reflective of our quality assurance investment.


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9.) Can your company provide tangible proof that its investment in quality assurance has improved product shelf life? Please describe the evidence to support this.

Due to the perishable nature of our products maintaining product shelf life is a key quality indicator. Fortunately, most of our products are individually quick frozen and are reconstituted from the frozen state. One of the benefits of our quality programs is our frozen products are able to maintain quality attributes up to a year from packaging in frozen storage.

Prior to processing our raw material is very perishable with a short shelf life. One day can mean a significant difference in wholesomeness. We have a narrow window to process our raw material through portioning, marinating, freezing and packaging. Improvements in our sanitation procedures implemented through our enhance quality assurance training has help to extend this window of opportunity. This extension is beneficial in reducing the potential for spoilage.


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10.) Can your company provide tangible proof that its investment in quality assurance has reduced customer complaints? Do you have any numbers to support your answer?

Yes, Fieldale Farms has partnerships with key customers who rely on the high values of products delivered on time with stringent quality requirements. Measuring customer satisfaction is part of our relationship building from initial customer contact to follow-up after the latest order. One of our tools to measure customer satisfaction is to graph customer complaints per pounds sold. This data is reviewed monthly and is a key performance indicator for continuous improvement.

Our investment for quality assurance for 2008 has shown a positive improvement when compared to 2007 for our top five customers by volume. For our top five customers by volume our yearly rate for complaints per 500,000 pounds sold was 0.56 for 2007 and 0.36 for 2008. This represents an improvement of 35.7%. Please see following graph.


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11.) Can your company provide tangible proof that its investment in quality assurance has led to a quantifiable reduction in pathogen activity? Do you have any numbers to support your answer?

Yes, being a ready-to-eat food processor pathogen testing is a daily occurrence at our facility. Thousand of microbial samples are taken per year. A result of our on-going training and heightened awareness is many potential harborages for pathogens have been revealed and eliminated. Open framework has been sealed and out-dated framework structure has been removed to facilitate cleaning. Hollow framework has been modified to an angle design. Hollow rollers on contact surface conveyors are to be replaced with solid ones. Metal detector framework has been modified to eliminate niches and appropriate ties and connectors are utilized. Product conveyor framework has been modified to provide improved access for cleaning. Many items have been added to the Master Sanitation

Schedule to prevent repeat problems in these areas.

These investments can be directly related to the reduced percentage of Listeria incidences on our processing equipment. We graph percentage positive Listeria per number of swabs taken. On our processing equipment for the past three months we have had 0 incidences of

Listeria on our equipment. This is reflected on the following graph.


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12.) Please tell us why your company should be considered for the Food Quality Award

(300 words or less).

As one of the largest privately owned companies in our industry, there are many competencies that helps Fieldale maintain the quality of our products. These competencies include a philosophy of continuous improvement, valued supplier partnerships, pride in our products and the agility to act quickly.

Fieldale Farms ongoing philosophy of continuous improvement is evident in our history. Tangible proof can be offered not just for the past 12 months, but for many years.

A few examples include a state of the art facility expansion, upgraded hydraulics, air flow hepa-filters, and the willingness to test antimicrobial technology and new processing technology. Antimicrobial technology has been tested in processing materials, employee frocks and equipment design. All chemical and microbial testing is performed in our corporate laboratory. This laboratory is certified and mirrors Fieldale Farms belief in continuous improvement.

Our customer and vendor partnerships allow for new technology to be first tested at

Fieldale Farms. This is evident in each of our processes. These partnerships add value to our products and support our philosophy for continuous improvement.

Fieldale Farms pride is evident in each of our processes. You can see it in the faces of every Fieldale employee. In every department our employees are part of the corporate family. Their input and dedication make it all happen. Each employee works together to achieve the goal of producing the best product available to our customers.

Through each phase of production, Fieldale shareholders pride themselves in assuring quality, dependability and service. Fieldale focuses on their customers and strives to serve their needs as best they can be served. It’s what makes Fieldale and Fieldale’s partnerships A CUT ABOVE THE REST.

13.) Please provide your name, title, company name, telephone number and email address.

Dr. Dan White, Ph.D.

FSQA Manager

Fieldale Farms-Further Processing Division

Office 770 536-3899 Ext. 3352

Cell 678 316-5782 danwhite@fieldale.com


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FOOD QUALITY AWARD - Food Quality & Safety

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annual Food Quality Award

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annual Food Quality Award

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