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Quality and
Safety

At Sodexo, we take our responsibility as stewards of the nation's food supply very seriously. Our responsibility to ensure the quality and safety of the food we provide is particularly important because we often serve vulnerable groups, such as children, seniors and hospital patients.

We promote and adhere to an extensive range of strict quality and food safety standards and policies - that's why we earned top honors in safety leadership last year from the National Safety Foundation.

Sodexo is a big food service provider, and that gives us big advantages in the area of food safety. We create and utilize state-of-the-art training programs, food safety technology, and vendor management programs to ensure that every meal we serve meets our high quality standards.

Food Safety Facts

  • Sodexo conducts a rigorous combination of daily, monthly and annual food safety audits and utilizes a leading independent company for random third-party food safety inspections. These audits verify our compliance with public health regulations and our strict company standards. They also enable systematic evaluation of all food safety, sanitation and food security aspects of our organization.
  • In 2007, 92 percent of our more than 3,000 safety and health audits passed with a score of 90 percent or better and 94 percent of our more than 2,500 food safety audits passed with a score of 90 percent or better
  • As a cornerstone for our supplier approval process, Sodexo requires that food manufacturers and distributors be audited annually by a Sodexo-approved auditing firm.
  • Sodexo has effective systems in place to alert our operations of any product recall or other potential food safety hazard that may require restricting the use of specific foods. These systems dramatically shorten the time required to isolate and remove products affected by a recall or market withdrawal.
  • We have strict purchasing standards in place for food safety-sensitive products, such as ground beef, fresh eggs and seafood.
  • Our comprehensive food safety and self-inspection program, which complies with the FDA's Food Code, requires monitoring and control of food temperatures, prevention of food cross-contamination, proper hygiene techniques and monthly food safety self-inspections at every facility where we handle and produce foods.
  • All managers are trained and certified in safe food handling. We use the Education Foundation's ServSafe program and require recertification every three years. Frontline employees are trained in the fundamentals of our food safety and self-inspection program and in all aspects of food safety.
  • We provide our managers with convenient access to all current food safety and food security related information through an extensive internal website that contains all new and existing food safety resources, training tools, regulatory updates, information about food security, food emergency planning, food allergies, sanitation and more.
  • Sodexo locates food safety zone managers and directors across the country in order to provide our managers with experts who are readily available to assist them in all aspects of food safety and product quality.
  • Sodexo's Quality Assurance & Food Safety Department investigates food complaints, such as alleged food borne illnesses, foreign object complaints, allergic reactions, chemical illnesses, food spoilage and general food quality complaints, and provides technical assistance. Department staff is ready to investigate, counsel and work with clients, health department officials and the media. The department maintains effective working relationships with all appropriate regulatory agencies and public health associations.
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