Ensuring Quality and Safety for Consumers

Exacting quality and safety standards are core to our mission and central to our heritage. They have driven our growth and success since 1869, when our founder, Henry John Heinz, began selling his first product, horseradish, in clear glass bottles so consumers could see the Heinz difference – the quality of our products and our use of wholesome ingredients.

Today, our robust quality assurance principles, procedures, standards, and technology help maintain Heinz’s reputation as one of the most trusted brands in the world.

In 2000, Heinz instituted an online global database that allows us to track and trace every raw material and ingredient that we use in our food products. The database, which is continuously updated and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, enables us to maintain critical information on the qualifications of suppliers and share our guidelines on ethical trading with them. The quality system tracks food safety requirements, records required data reported by Heinz suppliers, and enables us to monitor the quality and safety performance of factories and ingredients.

Suppliers are carefully screened and selected by Heinz through our Vendor Management Process. We expect suppliers to uphold our Supplier Guiding Principles and Global Operating Principles. If it is discovered a supplier is found not to be following Company guidelines, the supplier must take immediate corrective action, or Heinz will discontinue the relationship. Another componentof the vendor management program is continuous improvement.
Our global vendor teams, along with Research & Development, closely work with our suppliers to monitor and improve their compliance, process control, and delivery systems.

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