Responsibility
Keeping Our Eye on the Future
As a five-generation family business, we’ve always got an eye on the future. And we always think about giving the next generation something at least as good as what we had, if not better. To us, sustainability isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of doing business. Here are a few of the things we’re doing to take care of our products, our animals, our community, and the planet we all share. We’re working to get better and do more not because it’s trendy, but because it’s the right thing to do.
Food Safety
When you bring home any Frick’s product, you can be confident it tastes great and just as importantly, it’s been prepared and packaged safely. We have a passion for continuous improvement when it comes to food safety and quality assurance. As part of our food safety efforts, we eliminated all “Big 9” allergens (milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame) from our processing facility in 2011. We require letters of guarantee from our ingredient and packaging suppliers stating the ingredients they supply to us do not contain any of these allergens. Most of our products are also certified gluten-free, meaning not only are there no gluten-containing ingredients in the recipe, but also that we do additional testing to ensure there is not residual gluten from other processes outside of our control present in our products.
And you don’t have to take our word for it. The folks with Global Food Safety Initiative do an extensive audit each year and have awarded us an AA rating – the best achievable. GFSI audits are considered the highest standard of audit in the food industry, so we’re pretty proud to earn it.
Animal Care
We do not raise the hogs or other animals used in the production of our products. The majority of meat used in our products comes from Midwest states Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. And all of it comes from the US of A.
We may not control every step of the process, but we do hold our suppliers to high animal care standards. We require our suppliers to conduct annual humane handling audits at each supply chain stage, which are reviewed by our senior management. Each supplier follows the American Meat Institute Guidelines developed by renowned humane handling expert Temple Grandin. Their facilities and handling practices are developed and evaluated to ensure minimal distress and injury to the animals, so they can eat, sleep, and oink, moo, or cluck to their heart’s content. Happy, healthy animals make the best meat, and we make sure those animals are treated with respect.
Community
When you’ve been in a town for a century or so, you get to know your neighbors and they get to know you. Washington, Missouri has been good to our family and our business, and we do our best to return the favor. We donate fully cooked meat to food pantries and hunger relief efforts in Washington and elsewhere in the US, and we’re involved in numerous community events. For example, we’ve sponsored and helped organize Washington’s very own Baconfest for six years, in partnership with The Rotary Club of Washington. That event alone has generated more than $80,000 for the local economy, which goes a long way in a small town.
It’s a rare day when someone at Frick’s doesn’t get a high-five from Dave. But we know fostering a great work environment takes more than high-fives. We’re constantly working to improve our facilities to make them more comfortable and helpful for employees, and we recognize and reward the folks who go above and beyond at work in ways that go beyond a paycheck. We also strive to hire those who have served our country in the armed forces.
Energy Conservation
Our meats provide protein that gives your body the energy it needs, which is good. At the same time, all the steps it takes to get them to you require a different kind of energy, and we understand how important it is to use those resources wisely. Our production facility has a snazzy white roof to help keep the plant cool and use less energy. We use LED bulbs and high-efficiency water heaters to save more energy. And since we need to keep things cold around here, our refrigeration condenser fans and air compressor run on variable frequency driver technology, which is a fancy way of saying they make the most of every watt. We know this stuff isn’t as appetizing as a bone-in ham fresh from the oven. But in the long run, it matters just as much.
Standards Happy
Healthy