Supply quality

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Best quality and food safety practices starting with procurement

We leverage our global supply chain to mitigate risks and concerns related to raw material sourcing to maintain operational continuity. We actively identify alternative materials and use inventory management strategies to mitigate variations in logistics lead times. In addition, risk management practices include supplier diversification by origin, type of raw material and distributor, etc.

Global traceability policies are implemented to ensure that finished products meet the highest standards of quality and food safety. Systems are designed to retain any product within our distribution network, if necessary, avoiding any impact on consumer safety or brand reputation.

All incoming materials go through an inspection process where we review main aspects for a statistical sample based on the pass/fail criteria for each product category. This inspection includes, among other things, physicochemical analyses, microbiological analyses, and compliance with specifications.

Supplier performance is evaluated using scorecards where we review any rejections or near misses and assess trends to establish development or substitution projects.

Our commitment to food quality and safety begins with our supply chain. We work with all of them to deliver reliable products. Through the Sigma Responsible Sourcing Code, launched in 2021, we set out the practices we expect from them, including:

Compliance with all applicable regulations.

Delivering products that meet the quality and safety standards defined by Sigma or GFSI.

Implementing defect prevention controls in production.

Implementing a risk assessment methodology.

Having a food safety plan with a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, following Codex Alimentarius guidelines.

Uphold willingness to validate quality and safety management systems through audits aligned with international criteria and Sigma policies.

This year we also improved our crisis response support for safety issues, including the implementation of a system to identify and strengthen the capabilities of the central Quality and Safety team. Along with these improvements, risk prevention and mitigation indicators were implemented, leading to the creation of Quality and Safety indicator dashboards to map global trends.

Certifications and development

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To have a supply chain with food quality and safety, we require our suppliers to have an international certification endorsed by GFSI, or to comply with Sigma’s internal standards. We also have development projects for strategic suppliers to improve their practices.

Animal welfare

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We promote practices aligned with animal welfare in the supply chain. Building on the progress of our European operations, we will establish the Global Animal Welfare Policy covering animal welfare practices for our operations, including that animals in our supply chain be found:

Free from thirst, hunger, and malnutrition

Free from physical or thermal discomfort

Free from pain, injury, or illness

Free to express one’s own patterns of behavior

Free from fear and anguish

Our operations in Campofrio Frescos and Bureba plants in Spain and Rio Maior in Portugal, have the Welfair® certification from IRTA and Neiker-Tecnalia, which is based on the Welfare® Quality and AWIN protocols, considered the highest quality standards in relation to aspects such as feeding, health, and comfort of the animals.

During 2022, Sigma continued to implement the Animal Welfare Protocol in Europe, a process that is externally verified by Bureau Veritas and endorsed with the renewal of the Letter of Conformity for the second year. To date, 66 animal welfare audits have been carried out on suppliers in 8 European countries.

The future of our food safety and quality strategy

The development and implementation of technologies for the identification of product deviations will be key to our growth in the coming years. To this end, we will pursue:

The use of artificial intelligence in thermal and cooking processes to ensure the optimization of resources in production processes, and in the implementation of validation programs to ensure microbiological lethality in production processes and finished products, ensuring more efficient and safer products.

The use of algorithms to help identify environmental control risks in operations based on historical data and microbiological results.

New laboratory methodologies to make production safety decisions more efficient.

We will also continue to strengthen our internal Quality and Safety Culture to ensure process control and consumer preference for high-quality and safe products.

2022 Achievements

We implemented statistical quality analysis projects based on customer and consumer complaints. We identified deviation points and addressed them, reducing product complaints in Europe by 40%.

We installed systems to detect suboptimal coding on product packaging. By identifying them in advance, we avoided rejections in the distribution and sales process.

The Welfair® animal welfare seal was extended to all Campofrío sliced cooked ham products. This means that the raw material obtained complies with the highest animal welfare standards.