Our mission

“Are we meeting what you’re needing?”

When it comes to food quality and safety, we want all of our customers to be able answer with an emphatic “YES” to this question. Whether this means reduced holds, increased consistency, or better quality at scale, we go the extra mile to have a firm understanding of the specific needs of each product for each customer.

We ask ourselves: what factors matter to you? What are the most important food safety and quality elements for this particular product? What metrics do you need, and how can we help meet your company goals? How can we contribute to your success?

These questions help us drill in and get granular with the unique needs of each customer we have the honor of working with. Our approach to food quality and safety with customers is the same approach we use in all aspects of Hearthside: doing business through true partnerships. At the end of the day, we want our customers to know that we care deeply, we’re part of their team, and that they can depend on us. When we say we’re going to get something done, you have our word.

Overcoming key challenges

One of the many reasons that a collaborative partnership is so important to food quality and safety is because of the ever-changing regulatory and customer requirements in manufacturing and packaging. Between different compliance standards, sanitization protocols, foreign material reduction, and overall good manufacturing practices (GMP), there are a lot of moving targets to consider. To stay on top of all of these important details, we do constant internal audits to make sure that we’re hitting the strict requirements needed to succeed.

Establishing open lines of communication with each customer and across all our teams is critical to upholding our standards. Plus, it allows us to be flexible, taking on ad-hoc requests and unexpected needs, and make time-sensitive decisions with increased confidence. For instance, when it comes to co-packing, every organization is different—sometimes it might make sense for a company to handle the manufacturing internally, and for us to just do the packing, for example. In this scenario, we need to alter our communication lines to get ahead of potential supply issues, making sure we’re running smoothly across multiple teams at multiple companies.

Triumphs

It’s incredibly rewarding to help our customers increase their brand quality, which simply isn’t possible without the high standards we’ve set for ourselves across quality control, safety, and product consistency.

For us, it’s really more than requirements or process, it’s a culture about doing business the right way—safely with a high bar for quality. Our people are our biggest asset and we’re proud to work with a team that’s as responsive as they are, and who treat each customer’s needs as their own. Food quality and safety is a constantly moving target, but we’re able to stay nimble, detailed, and address urgent matters by working as a cohesive team.

When we’re able to contribute to these customer wins, Hearthside wins too—and that’s something we celebrate across the company at every level.