Food Safety

Ron Burke, Sr. Director of Food Safety, Quality and Regulatory, Ardent Mills

At Ardent Mills, we strive to be a people-first organization. This serves as the foundation for our commitment to our core value of safety. As our plant teams work to feed more than 100 million people across North America, we operate on the belief that food safety is people's safety and that this belief is foundational to our success, our customer's success, and to creating healthy communities for generations to come.

The standard for food safety has evolved in recent decades. More responsibility is being placed on the food ingredients industry to decrease the margin of error for food safety risks in consumer-packaged goods, and our team of food safety and regulatory experts takes this seriously.

According to Ardent Mills’ proprietary research, in general, food safety concerns are highest in the earliest stages of the food ‘system’– where consumers have the least control and visibility into the process. Because flour is a raw agricultural commodity, there are some microbiological riskswith pathogens contracted from the field that, if not properly accounted for, can lead to illnesses or an outbreak of foodborne disease. Although we account for these potential outcomes, the microbiological risk is also why products need to be cooked and handled correctly throughout the product chain.

Safe and nutritious foods are the key to nourishing our communities, and yet, traditional flour milling does not include a kill step–or the point at which food pathogens are removed from the ingredient. Ardent Mills is at the forefront of leading efforts to identify, reduce or eliminate microbiological risks in retail flour and help protect our customers from the reputational risk of a product recall and consumers from foodborne illnesses.

"Safe and nutritious foods are the key to nourishing our communities, and yet, traditional flour milling does not include a kill step–or the point at which food pathogens are removed from the ingredient."

To help ensure the safety and quality of a product, we evaluate our customers’ needs with the end application in mind. For example, our food safety product suite was created to address food safety risks associated with the mishandling of flour in applications intended to be labeled as ready-to-eat or ready-to-bake. Take our SafeGuard™ flour; this product implements innovative technology that reduces the microbiological risk inherent in conventional flour used in ready-to-eat products that are processed without a kill step. BakeSafer™ Treatments are designed to reduce the microbiological risk associated with consumers’ under-baking, under-frying, unevenly microwaving, or cross-contaminating ready-to-bake with ready-to-eat foods or finished products. By starting with the end in mind, we’re able to proactively meet the needs of the retail market, help protect our customers from costly recalls and help deliver safer products to grocery store shelves.

While our food safety product suite was developed with the health and safety of the consumer in mind, there’s also further evidence to support the idea that doing what’s good for the consumer can be good for the business, too, beyond the threat of a product recall.

Ardent Mills' proprietary research found that 53 percent of consumers rate 'food safety innovation' as a top three positive impact factor 'when considering the interest in buying and eating grain-based foods (e.g., bread, pasta, pizza crusts, cookies, etc.). Implementing innovative products like SafeGuard™ and BakeSafer™into product developmentcan not onlyhelp companies reduce risk and protect theirreputation but also show the conscious consumer that their products are produced with safety in mind, influencing their purchasing decision.

As Ardent Mills continues to invest in food safety research and technologies, we aim to bring options to our customers that make it easier to protect their brand and consumers. Through collaboration and innovation, food processing and manufacturing companies can make strides in reducing risk in our food system and help nourish our communities.