The award recognized fresh fruit and vegetable processing firm Taylor Farms for its commitment to advancing food protection technology and quality.
Bigger mission
Barbara D. Robleto, communications manager for DuPont Nutrition and Health, told FoodProductionDaily that the Food Quality Award program fits into the company’s greater mission to help increase food security around the world.
“Ensuring that enough healthy, nutritious food is available for people everywhere is one of the most critical challenges facing mankind,” she said. “From advancing the nutritional content of crops, to helping farmers and growers around the world increase food productivity, to finding better ways to ensure food security and safety, we’re working every day to get more good food to more people in every corner of the world.”
Other initiatives
In addition to the Food Quality Award, DuPont Nutrition and Health promotes food safety, security and quality advancement in a number of ways. Products such as antimicrobials, antioxidants and protective cultures are aimed to help protect shelf life, control pathogens and spoilage, enhance functionality and provide for a natural/cleaner label on food products. It also offers pathogen and spoilage detection technology and methods to monitor microbial environments.
“By combining the best in protective ingredients with the best in molecular testing, we help food companies deliver safer products and protect their brand,” Robleto said.
Commitment to safety
Taylor Farms’ safety- and quality-focused initiatives permeate the whole production process, from seed planting to packaging, and beyond. Its efforts include using Good Agricultural Practices, its patented SmartWash technology (which reportedly eliminates cross contamination), reduction of failures in food safety.
At the award ceremony, Taylor Farms president Mark Borman and quality assurance director Jason Kawata accepted the award and highlighted their organization-wide practices designed to maximize product shelf life, keep food safe and protect quality.
“Food safety is a top priority and the driving force in all we do at Taylor Farms,” said Borman. “With the most advanced fresh cut processing plants in the world, combined with our investments in state-of-the-art processing facilities, our customers know they can trust us to provide fresh, safe and high-quality produce.”
The DuPont-sponsored award recognizes quality assurance and control departments or programs that have made notable strides in boosting food safety and quality, with a marked improvement on business results. Read about the program and past Food Quality Award winners here. http://www2.dupont.com/Qualicon/en_US/about_dq/awards_fqa.html