Monday, October 13, 2008

US Foodservice Creating Sustainable Offerings Through Stategic Partnerships

U.S. Foodservice is proud to work with the best companies in the food business. Our goal is to connect suppliers and customers to expand the range of sustainable offerings in the marketplace. As a distributor of food and related products to more than 250,000 customers, we hope to use our position in the industry to encourage the development of more sustainable agricultural, manufacturing, and packaging practices.

We think that sustainable offerings are healthy offerings - healthy for the environment, healthy for producers, and healthy for consumers. USF provides more than 40,000 products, including thousands of Exclusive Brand items. With such a large range of product offerings, this can be a challenge, but we are looking to our supplier and customer partners to help us identify the best opportunities for change.

Our health and wellness program focuses on better options for the consumer by working with our customers to provide a range of healthy menu alternatives. Today's consumer demands more choices than ever, and we aim to provide tasty and nutritious alternatives to meet their needs.

Here is a sampling of CRS initiatives focused on engaging our supplier community and expanding our sustainable product offerings:

We launched a Supplier Sustainability Network, in partnership with eight of our suppliers.

We included a Sustainability Statement and survey of our supplier's sustainability efforts in our Supplier Expectations Manual.

We included a Sustainability Statement in our U.S. Foodservice Supplier Code of Business Conduct.

We developed a list of Exclusive Brand products that are transfat-free.

We formed a group to promote packaging that uses healthier materials, reduces material waste, and effectively protects product quality.

We met with customers to learn more about their interest in sustainable offerings.

We began highlighting organic offerings in our product database.

We developed a local sourcing pilot program in San Francisco.

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