Food Safety
The existence of a safe, reliable and traceable food supply chain is paramount to our industry. W.R. Vernon Produce Company is committed to the highest standards of quality and food safety. We have a fully documented food safety program audited annually by NSF International which covers our entire process from receiving and storage to shipment. Our program includes hazard analysis, personal hygiene, facility and truck sanitation and maintenance, crisis management, product recall plans and security.
To help safeguard our products as well as our customers, here’s what we are doing in our facilities:
Maintaining the Cold Chain: The cold chain is monitored from the beginning by checking all inbound trucks for proper temperatures, both in the trailers as well as the pulp temperatures of the product.
USDA Receiving Standards: In addition to checking temperature, our USDA trained and certified Quality Assurance Staff also inspects all incoming product for quality, tampering and pest control. We also inspect our inventory on a regular basis to ensure freshness, date rotation and food security.
Proper Storage Practices: Since products often require different temperature, humidity and ethylene controlled environments for storage, our facilities have been modified accordingly. These modifications also aid in assuring complete cold chain protection, sanitation, food safety and operational efficiencies.
Lot tracking: Our computerized record-keeping system allows us to quickly and accurately track cases of product at any point between the supplier and the customer.
Documented Sanitation Schedules: For facilities, property and truck fleet. Third Party monitored pest control program by Steritech
Divisions
W.R. Vernon Produce is comprised of two different businesses both run out of our Winston-Salem, N.C. facility.
First is our retail division. This business is dedicated to supplying the needs of our supermarket/retail customers. We provide advanced ad lid pricing and promotional ideas in order to help our customers take advantage of seasonal specials, holiday planning and maximizing sales.
Complimenting our retail entity is our food service and wholesale business. This division of our company is responsible for providing restaurant quality products to our jobbers and food service distributors. We also supply many smaller wholesale companies in our geographical region.
Logistics
We serve nearly the entire Eastern Seaboard. We are in 14 states from New Hampshire to Louisiana three times per week. Our fleet of dedicated climate controlled trucks affords us a multitude of delivery options.
A direct benefit of our vast distribution radius is the ability to backhaul product from many of the producing areas in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Having complete control over our trucks gives us a unique freight advantage over many of our competitors, thus allowing us to pass the savings on to our customers.
Green Initiatives
Cardboard Recycling – A byproduct of our recycling operation yields nearly 120 tons of cardboard packaging that is recycled each year. This converts to an annual savings of approximately 2040 trees. As our recycling efforts and process continue to improve we are forecasting a 5% increase per year in the amount of packaging that we are able to recycle.
Fork Lifts and Pallet Jacks – W.R. Vernon Produce has converted all of our warehouse lifting equipment to electric in an effort to minimize our carbon footprint.
New Construction – Beginning with our last addition we have started to use the latest insulation technology. Not only does it keep our cooler temperatures more constant, it allows us to run our cooling units less, which is a savings in the amount of electricity we consume.