As consumer concern for food safety standards in restaurants continue to increase, Nestlé Professional® announced the facility of its chef-centric brand, Minor’s®, is now recognized by the USDA as a “Ready-to-Eat” (RTE) facility.

According to a national survey by Packaged Facts in November 2015, 74 percent of consumers think that restaurants should monitor food safety more closely.1 To support operators facing these expectations, Minor’s went through the extensive 4-year process to achieve RTE status for its facility. The USDA and FDA define RTE as food in a form that is edible without any additional preparation to achieve food safety.

“As an industry leader in quality assurance, we put excellence, consistency and food safety at the forefront of everything we create at Nestlé Professional,” said Minor’s Marketing Manager Todd Muller. “With this innovation, our customers can now flavor their distinct signature dishes without the added step of cooking.”

Minor’s RTE status was obtained through rigorous end-to-end classification and evaluation of every single ingredient in all of its product recipes. This included optimizing the sourcing and handling of suppliers and ingredients, advancing to a high-hygiene packaging environment and enhancing kitchen processes with High Pressure Processing (HPP). HPP is a natural, state-of-the-art pressure-preserve technique to reduce microbes without changing flavor, texture or product integrity.

To maintain this RTE status, a detailed, daily sampling of every production run is taken, the USDA can sample finished goods at any time and there is an on-site USDA representative present for all shifts at the Minor’s facility. The result is a high quality, consistent, and flavorful ingredient for both hot and cold applications.