BRINGING OUR PROMISE TO LIFE
Responsible Sourcing
As part of our commitment to operating responsibly, we are dedicated to ensuring every supplier understands our high standards and conducts its business with honesty, fairness and ethics.
Clearly outlining these expectations is our Global Supplier Code of Conduct, a shared commitment to "Doing Things Right." It emphasizes our commitment to protecting the working rights and safety of the people who work with our Company or supply our Company with goods and services, while recognizing the cultural and legal differences found throughout the world.
The Global Supplier Code requires direct suppliers to contractually agree not to employ children, prison labor, indentured or bonded labor, or to participate in human trafficking. In addition to quality audits as part of our supply chain assessment, we use third party firms to perform scheduled social compliance audits and look for any evidence of human rights violations in targeted suppliers’ facilities.
In addition to communicating our expected standards, we also provide a learning module to ensure our suppliers understand our expectations, their responsibilities and how to remain in compliance with our Responsible Sourcing Program.
For further details on our Responsible Sourcing Program click here.
Promoting Human Rights and Animal Welfare
Human Rights
As a Company, we support international human rights principles, including the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labor Organization’s Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights to Work, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 29 on Forced Labor, the ILO Convention No. 105 on Abolition of Forced Labor, the ILO Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and Work, and the ILO Convention No. 181 on Private Employment Agencies. We encourage our Suppliers to: (i) develop human rights policies that cover all operations and relevant stakeholders, (ii) implement those policies in their operations, and (iii) regularly measure direct, indirect, and potential human rights impacts and remediate adverse human rights impacts.
Learn more about our commitment here.
Animal Welfare
We are committed to the welfare of animals. Whether farm or domesticated, we believe all animals should be treated with care and compassion throughout their lives.
Our animal welfare policy clearly communicates our:
- Commitment to not conduct or sponsor any harmful animal testing;
- Expectations for the humane treatment of animals in our supply chain; and
- Efforts to improve the lives of, and relationships with, our pets in the United States and Canada.
These commitments are delivered in conjunction with our business partners and are aligned with the breadth and volume of our product portfolio.
Review our animal welfare policy here.
Strengthening Relationships with Farmers and Growers
Delivering a safe food supply begins with ensuring the highest quality ingredients. We expect every supplier to meet our high standards and work collaboratively to ensure these expectations are understood and complied with consistently.
This includes our work across all of our categories. Here are a few examples of our diligence.
Fruit
Many may not realize it, but we receive the strawberries and grapes that go into our products and process them ourselves. Our experts, who offer more than 150 years of combined experience, are in the fields monitoring the safe processing and quality of every piece of fruit. We have established this process through our long-standing relationships with fruit farmers (some over generations).
Our teams are on hand during harvest to monitor the quality of the fruit to ensure a consistent, high-quality product. This diligent process identifies pieces of fruit with any issues that would potentially impact the ability to deliver the jams, jellies and preserves consumers trust.
Peanuts
As the largest purchaser of the commodity in the U.S., our facilities can go through one million pounds of peanuts per day. The process of bringing these peanuts to consumers is much more complex than the simplicity of the most popular lunch sandwich. Peanuts are harvested up to 200 days after they are planted. From there they go through a drying process. Once dried, the peanuts are transported to buying stations where they undergo a thorough inspection. Those peanuts deemed to meet expectations are sent out for shelling, packing and transport.
Only the highest quality peanuts are used for our peanut butter – selected based on flavor and to ensure a uniform kernel size to roast evenly.
Coffee
Most coffee is not sourced from large industrial farms but instead by smallholder farmers. For these farmers, coffee is not just a livelihood, it is how they support their families and how their children will provide for future generations.
As technology and environmental factors have evolved, many of these smallholder farmers have not had access to the proper training to support the sustainability of their crops. This was an issue we recognized upon entering the coffee category and one we have been passionate about supporting ever since. Our support of training programs helps these farmers ensure a sustainable crop and the continued delivery of America’s favorite morning beverage.
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