At Bonduelle, quality is a genuine trade!
Before this can of corn these frozen green beans reach your fridge, a lot has happened! Do you have any idea what it takes to guarantee a healthy and delicious end product? Production, packaging, research and development, nothing is random. And to be sure, the quality department is here: zoom on the lesser known department which is essential to our pleasure.
What is to guarantee quality?
“The first quality challenge is to guarantee healthy products!” reminds Virginie ML, collaborator at Bonduelle’s Long life Quality Department. “The objective is to feature tasty and pretty products to consumers. However, the first challenge when it comes to quality is that our products must respect the food security guarantees”. Because the quality of a product is followed on two levels: first through clear requirement specifications and then through the control and daily follow-up throughout product units. Bonduelle’s quality service carries out a regulatory watch over current legislations (organic, microbiology, tagging…) and defines the requirement specifications to be applied and controlled on production sites. Requirement specifications can thus define the weight, cut, size of a product as well as the recipe’s ingredients – for instance, for a frozen vegetable stir-fry or cans with a cooked sauce. “Not only is it about controlling the quality of vegetables, it is about controlling all raw materials we use'', adds Virginie. "Our work is also to bring the right ingredients for recipes meeting consumer expectations without any compromise on food security”. Thus, all purchases (spices, herbs…) are followed closely and secured thanks to very precise data sheets and in-depth analyses allowing to – for instance – manage allergens.
Tagging and customer service
The first contact with the quality of a Bonduelle product is often through its… tag. Ingredients, allergens, values and nutritional claims, what we can communicate is supervised… and the quality department makes sure of it! Equally, each country where Bonduelle is present has a dedicated service for consumer satisfaction. Thus, on each product is printed the information allowing customers to get in contact with the customer service as much to get information as to lodge an eventual complaint. As such, feedback allows us to improve products if necessary and analysis of complaints ensures everyone’s satisfaction even further.
And on each production location…
In each Bonduelle business unit, the quality plan is created depending on technological specificities (cans, frozen, fresh, etc.) and its regulatory context particular to each geographical location. All production sites implement numerous quality checks a day from harvest to stocking – regarding temperatures, bacteria and even weight. Thus, when raw materials arrive on production lines before shipment, the requirement specifications are verified: here is how 100 % of Bonduelle production sites have at least one certification guaranteeing product quality. From the field to the stockroom, all these informations can be found thanks to the code on each packaging: field, crop conditions, harvest date, using preparation conditions, stocking condition… Quality and traceability always go hand-in-hand!
“Quality is a fascinating work but difficult to explain as it is transversal and creates a link between consumers, marketing and manufacturing while following regulations, norms and legislations. As soon as an idea is born at Bonduelle, there is always someone from the quality department involved “ sums up Virginie ML. Enough to feel reassured about what we eat.