HQ Fine Foods takes pride in its products, facilities, and people. One other thing we take pride in? Our rigorous quality assurance standards. With our facilities producing over 27,000 sandwiches per day, it is mission critical for us to ensure that every single product being produced in, and leaving, our plants is food safe.
How do we do that? It starts with our people. Each product is individually assembled by associates who have been trained in quality control, food safety processes, and production output. We also have five food scientists on staff who monitor food production in our facilities and ensure that all processes are functioning as expected.
Our quality control team does daily, strategic checks on everything from incoming ingredients to the finished products to ensure consistency and safety. A day in the life of one of these team members includes pre-operational inspections, good manufacturing process (GMP) monitoring, overseeing production startups/runs/switchovers to ensure compliance with food safety, and performing quality control finished product testing to ensure food safety and quality parameters are met.
We work hand-in-hand with CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) inspectors, are SQF certified, and have trained, permanent HACCP and SQF personnel within the quality control team. These individuals are tasked with overseeing and managing the facility’s programs and procedures to ensure we remain compliant with all regulatory requirements.
Facility safety is critical for us, which is why we have developed complete HACCP plans and Quality Assurance procedures & policies, as well as a robust safety program supported by extensive third-party audits and inspections. As part of our established HACCP plan, we conduct regular internal inspections.
We take great care to keep our state-of-the-art facilities impeccably clean and safe for both our associates and the food. Our plants are federally inspected daily by CFIA (and annually by SQF), and we perform environmental and finished testing in accordance with CFIA and Health Canada regulations. Our facilities is certified by recognizable standards and agencies across North America:
- HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point)
- CFIA/ACIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency)
- NSF (National Sanitation Foundation)
- FDA (U.S. Food & Drug Administration)
- GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative)
- SQF (Safe Quality Food) Food Safety Code for Manufacturing