Food Safety
Our Approach
Hershey is committed to creating more goodness inside by delivering quality products that meet the highest food safety standards in the industry. We go beyond compliance with national and international standards, and every part of our manufacturing process is subject to rigorous auditing and oversight.
We take a preventive approach to food safety and quality. Hershey’s Product Excellence Program (PEP) is our comprehensive quality management system that is designed to identify, reduce and eliminate risk through the entire product lifecycle including product design, supply chain, production and distribution to the customer. Through this system, we identify potential risks and implement controls and monitoring to ensure the safety and quality of our products.
The Quality Center of Excellence team oversees the PEP to ensure its rigorous controls, monitoring and auditing practices are applied throughout the value chain. The Global Regulatory team continually reviews and evaluates emerging regulations and industry practices to ensure that we meet the latest requirements and best practices.
The PEP meets or exceeds current Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standards and all Hershey-owned manufacturing facilities are GFSI-certified.
A Shared Responsibility
Food safety is the responsibility of everyone at a food manufacturing company – Hershey ensures that we drive the right behaviors around food safety and quality by providing standardized onboarding for all manufacturing facility personnel. We train people in every type of role with:
- Standardized onboarding for all manufacturing facility personnel, with annual refresher training
- Food safety basics training as part of our required onboarding for all new salaried employees, which was updated in 2024
- Training targeted to equip people in specific roles to work and advocate for food safety, such as the onboarding and annual refresher training for Quality Assurance Engineering and R&D personnel
Food Safety Across Our Value Chain
Hershey sources 100% of ingredients from suppliers approved through the Supplier Quality Management Program. We take a broad look at the supplier’s food safety system and potential risks
given the ingredient type. This ensures compliance with applicable GFSI and regulatory requirements. We also work throughout our value chain to improve practices by helping suppliers achieve GFSI certification.
We also want to promote food safety among consumers and the wider industry. We therefore collaborate with others as a member of the Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness (ASFI) to provide resources such as free food safety webinars and an online toolkit.
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