Royal Food Service has always been an industry leader when it comes to Food Safety. For over five years Royal has had independent, third party inspections of its facility and has had a secured entrance into the warehouse. We have been operating under a documented, HACCP Program as detailed below:

Documented HACCP Program
(Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point)

Quality Assurance starts in the Fields as PRO*ACT has field inspectors on site at the growing sites to ensure that only the very best crops are harvested for distribution. A Quality Assurance Manual and Food Safety Policy outline the practices that are required of every supplier that does business with PRO*ACT. This includes:

• Product Specifications
  
  
• Good Manufacturing Practices for:
  • Field Packing
  • Shed Packing
  • Packaged/Value Added Packing
    
    
• Facility Audits of Suppliers
  
  
• Mandatory Third Party Inspections
  
  
• Trace Recall Program
  
  
• Product Handling Practices for Cross Docking and Transfer of Product
  
  
• At Royal, we walk the talk when it comes to HACCP. This includes documented schedules detailing daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning schedules to ensure that the facility is sanitary. This includes but is not limited to: Warehouse floors, walls, dock leveling plates, light fixtures, floor drains, curtains, temperature logs, ballards, doors, racking, and under and behind pallet positions.

• Twice a year we perform a mock product recall to ensure that in the case of a recall that our personnel are ready for implementation and will act with the speed and accuracy necessary to ensure minimum exposure for our customers.

Direct Receiver of Product

In order to have trace ability and a HACCP Program, it is necessary to be a direct receiver. Many of the local produce companies buy off the market and have no way to trace what lot or source the product came from. At Royal, we follow strict receiving standards that start with a controlled temperature dock, capable of maintaining constant temperatures in the summer or winter.

• All of our transportation haulers are required to follow strict guidelines including cleaning the truck prior to loading, all product must be stacked on pallets, Ryan recorders must be present on every load in order to maintain a history of the temperature within the trailer to ensure that the cold chain was maintained.

• Tractor-trailers are not allowed to open their doors until the load is ready to be received. This is important in cold chain management. Once the products are unloaded onto the dock, pulp thermometers are used to check the product temperature for industry standards. Any deviation beyond the tolerable level results in a USDA inspection and the load is rejected.

• A random sampling from each product is weighted to ensure that weights are within the acceptable USDA and PRO*ACT standards. Lightweight product is rejected at time of delivery.

• Each and every product that is received into our warehouse is dated and labeled for trace ability. Each product is placed in the cooler designed to store it at the optimal temperature and with similar products that either produce ethylene gas or are sensitive to ethylene gas. The FIFO – first in first out method is utilized in shipping product.

Inventory Management

At Royal we utilize computers to monitor the temperature in every cooler and our dock. You won’t find manual or digital thermometers that have a tendency to fail or give false readings. Each cooler has two separate temperature recordings, as a backup, and are tied to a general alarm if the temperature rises above or falls below a tolerable range.

• We have a Quality Assurance team that is assigned the task to assist in the inspection of product on arrival and to check and maintain the quality of product that has already been received. Each cooler is assigned a QA employee for the purpose of accountability.

• We turn our inventory an average of three times a week. This ensures that you are receiving the freshest produce available.

• We are inspected twice a year by third party inspectors, Cooke and Thurber to ensure that our HACCP guidelines are being followed to the specified criteria.

Loading the Product for Shipment to our Customers

• Our trucks are pre-cooled before loading. This assures that product loaded does not absorb heat in the summer or get too cold in the winter. This is one more step in cold chain management that ensures the longest possible shelf life for each product.

• A photo is taken of every truck’s load and posted in-house to ensure proper accountability with our selectors. Every product loaded is required to be placed on a pallet.

• Every delivery truck is required to have curtains attached in order to maintain the cold chain at time of delivery.

Active Involvement

Another important part of the overall food safety and quality assurance program at Royal is maintaining our involvement with our growers, trade associations, and government agencies. We must continue to keep up with the regulatory issues and with the technology that continues to improve food safety.

Royal’s Guarantee to Its Customers

We guarantee our product at Royal Food Service. You may return any product for a full refund with 24 hours of its delivery for any reason. Now that’s confidence in our product!