AUSTIN, Minn. – Hormel Foods Corporation has achieved its water-use goal of reducing water use by 30 million gallons since 2009 – one year early, states its newly released 2010 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report. The study is available online at www.hormelfoods.com/csr.

This marks the fourth full report Hormel has released covering environmental and social performance and the fifth report overall highlighting the company’s commitment to being a good corporate citizen. “Elevate the Everyday, Our Way,” is this year’s theme. It emphasizes the company’s desire to build upon its heritage of innovation and quality when conducting its day-to-day business activities, according to a press release

“With our unwavering commitment to corporate responsibility, Hormel Foods continues to 'Elevate the Everyday, Our Way',” said Jeffrey Ettinger, chairman of the board, president and CEO. "Through continuous improvement, we endeavor to reduce our impact on the environment, act responsibly and provide value to our shareholders as we plan for the future."

The company’s performance in fiscal year 2010 to reduce water use and solid waste going to landfill, as well as strategic philanthropic efforts and industry-leading employee safety performance, are detailed in this year’s study. It also outlines new initiatives in key areas such as health, wellness and food safety.

Study highlights include:

  • The company created Spammy, a fortified, shelf-stable turkey spread to help address global childhood malnutrition. The company made an initial three-year commitment to deliver 1 million cans of Spammy to in-need families in Guatemala through partners Food For The Poor and Caritas Arquidiocesana in 2011.
  • Hormel donated more than $5.7 million in products and cash to charitable organizations focused on education and hunger efforts.
  • The company reduced water use by 11 percent, solid waste to landfill by 28 percent and direct energy use by 6 percent when normalized for production from the baseline year of 2006.
  • In select products, Hormel Foods reduced sodium by 8 percent in 2010.
  • Its Progressive Processing LLC production facility in Dubuque, Iowa, was awarded LEED Gold and became one of the first manufacturing plants to be a LEED-certified project at any level. LEED certification is the recognized standard for measuring building sustainability.

Julie Craven, vice president of corporate communications, told MEATPOULTRY.com, “One initiative that has benefited our meat and poultry business the most is our continued effort to evolve our products to accommodate changing consumer tastes and preferences. This includes expanding the health and wellness profile of our products and setting a goal to reduce sodium in our products by 15 percent by 2020.

“We’re also proud of our continued progress on all of our environmental goals,” she added. “Most notably, we beat our water goal [to reduce water consumption by 10 percent by the end of fiscal year 2011] one year early. With any kind of production, the more sustainable the process is, the better it is for business – including the meat and poultry industry.”

The online study can be accessed and a study summary can be downloaded at www.hormelfoods.com/csr.

Hormel Foods will feature an online contest in honor of launching the fifth overall report. The company will donate $5 to Feeding America – the leading domestic hunger-relief charity in the US – for every retweet on Twitter announcing the release of the 2010 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report – up to $5,000. “For the Feeding America donation [$5 for each tweet/retweet about the 2010 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report], people need to use the hashtag #HormelCR. We'll be counting tweets with this hashtag through Friday, May 13,” a Hormel spokesperson told MEATPOULTRY.com.

Hormel intends to highlight its environmental and social performance annually. The next study will be released in May 2012 for data spanning November 2010 to October 2011.