Quality and Safety

 

With decades-long relationships with fruit growers and packing houses, we procure only the finest quality fruit. Then a rigorous testing program ensures that our high quality standards are met during growing, harvesting, juicing, blending, processing and packaging. Every single load of fruit is scrutinized, every batch of juice is custom-blended, and all production lots are thoroughly tested by a trained and dedicated Quality Assurance staff at our in-house analytical and microbiological facilities.

 

GMP's refer to federal requirements for Good Manufacturing Practices and cover areas such as buildings, equipment, personnel and pest control. GMP's are a key prerequisite to a comprehensive food safety system that would include HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points).

 

HACCP employs a detailed, systematic food safety plan for identifying and preventing potential physical, chemical and biological hazards during food production. A federal rule was enacted in January, 2004 that requires all juice manufacturers to implement a documented HACCP food safety plan.

 

Years in advance of the federal requirement, Sun Orchard was already leading the way in the utilization of HACCP.  Working closely with regulatory and academic experts from renowned institutions such as the FDA and the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, we have developed and implemented comprehensive programs that provide the highest possible level of food safety assurance.

 

At our invitation and at the request of our customers, we constantly test the effectiveness of our food safety assurance programs through third party auditors that include Silliker Laboratories, AIB, and NSF / Cook & Thurber. Additionally, many of our customers routinely perform rigorous quality audits of their own. Sun Orchard is proud to say that our products, facilities, programs and personnel consistently earn top scores.

 

We will also individually customize our food quality systems to work seamlessly with our customers' own programs.

 

As a result of all of these efforts, we've often earned Supplier of the Year honors for our quality food services, including being named a Top 100 Supplier for SYSCO and a Top 5% Supplier for Darden Restaurants.