Wornick

Wornick Foods, a leading manufacturer of convenience foods and customized meal solutions, announced today that, for the second year in a row, the company achieved the SQF 2000 – Level 3 Certification from the Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI), a globally trusted, recognized and accepted food safety and quality program.

Wornick Foods received an excellent ranking, the highest that can be awarded with SQF 2000 – Level 3 certification, the most stringent and highest level certification awarded by SQFI, in its audit in January 2012.

“I am very proud of our safety and compliance leaders and the entire Wornick Foods team for meeting the rigorous standards for comprehensive food safety and quality management systems set by SQFI, for the second year in a row,” said Jon Geisler, president and CEO of Wornick Foods. “Food safety is our top priority. We are constantly working to produce the safest, highest quality food we can by engaging highly skilled chefs, engineers and project managers to design, develop and deliver the best food possible for our clients and consumers.”

SQF 2000 – Level 3 certification goes beyond assuring food safety by incorporating a quality standard, assuring all customers of Wornick Foods that the products they receive are of the highest quality and are produced, handled, prepared, processed and distributed while meeting the strictest food safety standards in the industry.

Wornick Foods’ food safety and quality systems plan is based on employee engagement and leadership by a cross-functional team. For the last three years, Wornick Foods achieved 100% compliance on the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) audit of its Meal Ready to Eat (MRE) production and assembly facilities.

Wornick Foods has always worked with leading safety organizations in the food service industry such as NSF International, SILLIKER and the American Society for Quality (ASQ). Wornick’s Quality professionals are Certified Managers of Quality/Organizational Excellence and Quality Auditors by the ASQ.

The SQF Program was launched in 1994 and is administered by the SQF Institute, a division of the Food Marketing Institute (FMI). SQF is one of only three certification systems recognized by the Global Food Safe Initiative (GFSI), which links primary production certification to food manufacturing, distribution and agent/broker management certification.

(Cincinnati, OH) August 15, 2011 – Wornick Foods, a leading manufacturer of convenience foods and customized meal solutions, provides innovative and sustainable packaging solutions in several flexible formats that are highly attractive on the grocery store shelf while reducing shipping weight and landfill waste versus traditional glass jars, metal cans or bag-in-box methods.

Wornick has a long history of devising flexible packaging with features such as microwavability, easy open/tear, "eat in" portability and self-venting technologies. Co-manufacturing and leading consumer product goods companies rely on Wornick Foods to design, develop and deliver flexible packaging that re-energizes or extends their product offerings while at the same time reduces the product’s carbon footprint.

“The flexible packaging industry is continuing to grow due to increasing demand from consumers and companies for convenient and more environmentally friendly packaged food products,” said John Kowalchik, Executive Vice President of Wornick Foods. “At Wornick, we have brought many innovative flexible packages to the market through our in-house packaging experts and their focus on light-weighting our containers and pouches to meet our sustainability objectives.” One aspect of Wornick Foods’ sustainable practices is recycling at the facility. All excess trim and packaging from the manufacturing process is recycled.

Wornick Foods utilizes BPA-free plastic films to create pouches and trays that require less paper packaging and corrugated cardboard for shipping. These individual, shelf-ready food products weigh less, are less bulky than traditional bag in a box, cans or glass and allow more units to be packaged per box and pallet. Energy usage and raw materials are reduced for production of the packaging, the individual unit and pallet weigh less for shipping and the carbon footprint of the product is minimized.

Many Wornick Foods products are shipped in containers that will easily become point-of-purchase displays on the retail or grocery floor, further reducing the use of paper and corrugate. The retail ready display is environmentally friendly and further minimizes the carbon footprint of the food products.

Wornick Foods’ co-manufactured food products are shelf-ready, meaning they do not need to be heated or refrigerated. The pouch and tray formats utilized by Wornick Foods allow food to be more portable and eaten directly from the container – eliminating the consumer’s need to wash dishes or bowls after use and reduce energy consumption.

“Wornick Foods partners with the leading consumer products goods companies to bring the brands and foods that consumers love to the shelf,” added Kowalchik. “Our packaging and engineering experts are continuously exploring new films and methods to achieve highly attractive and more sustainable packaging and shipping formats.”