We have some fantastic news to share with you! Zina's Salads Inc. has achieved the Safe Quality Food (SQF) certification with an excellent score, a milestone that places us in an elite category of food producers. This is a huge accomplishment for us, and we couldn’t wait to share it with you.

For over 40 years, Zina's Salads has been dedicated to crafting delicious and safe food products. During the past 12 years, I’ve had the privilege of being part of Zina's Salads in various roles. From the very beginning, I knew that the company needed a robust quality assurance program. We’ve always been committed to great recipes and the best ingredients, but I wanted to ensure our products were also recognized for their safety and quality.

Achieving SQF certification is no small feat. It sets the big players apart from the small ones because it involves significant financial investment, not just in obtaining the certification but also in upgrading facilities and hiring full-time quality assurance personnel. Over the years, we’ve diligently worked towards this goal, starting at our smaller 16,000-square-foot facility in East Hanover, New Jersey. We began with GMP certification, achieving a 98% rating, which was a great start, but we knew we had to push further.

We teamed up with CFS and Rich Gibson, whose guidance was instrumental in getting our first SQF program together. Despite rigorously following SQF procedures for years, achieving certification required significant upgrades. Our new state-of-the-art facility in South Plainfield, New Jersey, played a crucial role in this achievement. New floors, drain systems, refrigeration, as well as moving from a metal detector to an X-ray system, implementing an automatic temperature monitoring system, and developing custom quality assurance software - just to give a few examples of what we have achieved in the last couple of years.

SQF certification allows our customers to do business with us in confidence, knowing that we are a certified quality producer. You can continue to expect our quality products to be delivered on time, with the same high standards of safety and quality.

While SQF focuses primarily on food safety, Zina's Salads also emphasizes sustainability. We have set the goal to be a 99% zero waste company by the end of the year and are enhancing our facility with electric charging stations for EVs, solar panels, and commercial composting equipment.

We also want to give a big shout-out to our outstanding management team and the dedicated people working in our facility who went through additional rigorous training to ensure our excellent score. People often think that all the talent is held by big corporations, but that’s not true! Many small companies have great, talented people who enjoy a friendly, family-like work environment. These folks are knowledgeable and talented, and it’s a pleasure to work with other small companies that care about integrity and customer satisfaction, not just quantity or shareholder value.

Looking ahead, 2024 is set to be a year of upgrades and continued excellence. We remain committed to providing top-quality products while embracing innovative practices and sustainability.

Thank you for being a part of our journey. We invite you to reach out to us to explore more business opportunities and learn how we can continue to work together.