FAQ

No, we distribute products all over the country. We aren’t limited to a particular region.

Our products fall into three categories: 1, individually quick-frozen (IQF) meat crumbles, 2, oven cooked, diced and shredded meats and 3, kettle-cooked products. There are a wide variety of products in each category. From meatballs, chicken, shredded beef and carnitas to taco meat, soups, chili and sauces, we customize each of these products to meet our customers’ needs.

Absolutely. We specialize in kettle-cooked products, which may or may not contain meat. Many of our sauces and soups are meat-free.

No, every product we make is custom-developed for a particular customer and specific application.

As of July 2016, we became part of the Cargill family.

The Five Star Way describes the values, behaviors, principles and practices that are the foundation of our unique culture. It explains how we relate to each other, our customers and even our suppliers. It’s who we are and it’s what drives our extraordinary success. Learn more about The Five Star Way here.

Yes, we have several e-guides available on our website. For starters, we have an e-guide that answers when you should use a custom food manufacturer. We also have comparison guides for outsourcing ingredients to a CFM vs. creating them in-house — both a food producer edition and a restaurant edition. Finally, we have an e-guide for developing a product with a custom food manufacturer.

On average, we handle more than half a million pounds of raw product per day at our Fort Worth facility. Our Nashville location produces closer to 200,000 pounds of product per day. So that’s a total of 700,000 pounds between the two plants per day.

We understand that restaurants and food manufacturing plants have different needs and we tailor our services accordingly. How the end product is prepared (i.e. in a kitchen or food manufacturing plant) will determine what is most important to the customer.

We customize our product to meet the needs of our customers. We pride ourselves in innovation and go the extra mile to ensure our product formula and packaging meets expectations. We’re very flexible and work with customers to make sure their orders are perfect.

Research and development is integral to our process. Our R&D collaborative effort centers around service and creatively helping our customers — whether food producers or restaurants — solve problems and create new products.

It depends on the application. It can be as short as a few weeks or as long as several months, depending on the complexity and customer testing.

There’s no gray area when it comes to food safety. We consistently score the highest level for third party and customer ratings for food safety. We include all feedback in our continuous improvement process. Our programs identify food safety risks, establish controls and outline monitoring procedures to prevent food safety issues. Additionally, we are SQF Level 3 Certified.

There’s a difference between quality and safety; we take both very seriously. We ensure attributes for all our products are well maintained. While collaborating with customers, we listen intently and take the steps required to deliver a product that meets desired quality standards.