At HelloFresh, our dedication to upholding the essence of 'Fresh' goes beyond mere words; it's a commitment we uphold tirelessly. On World Food Safety Day 2024, we want to shine a spotlight on our recent accomplishments and mark significant milestones in our journey toward ensuring unparalleled quality and safety standards.

We're thrilled to announce the successful implementation of the Quality & Safety Culture survey across our markets, in collaboration with the Culture Excellence team. This milestone signifies a new chapter, empowering us to enact impactful initiatives based on invaluable employee feedback. Cultivating a robust safety culture has yielded remarkable results, as evidenced by our outstanding audit performance. 

In our pursuit of excellence, we've collaborated closely with esteemed partners LRQA and TUV to establish BRCGS Storage & Distribution certification standards across our distribution centers and HUBs. This ensures that our Distribution Centers consistently operate at the pinnacle of excellence, reinforcing our unwavering commitment to food safety.

Last year, we celebrated achieving AA scores, the highest attainable rating for BRCGS, in eleven out of the twelve distribution centers subjected to certification audits and nine Hubs. As we progress, we're transitioning towards unannounced audits for all sites undergoing the 3rd BRCGS certification audit, further driving our audit-ready culture.

To bolster our sites' readiness for external audits and nurture an audit-ready culture, we've revamped our DC Compliance audit program in 2024, adopting a semi-unannounced framework in collaboration with BSI Group. This evolution underscores our dedication to operating at the pinnacle of standards each day.

Furthermore, our collaboration with esteemed food research institutions like Campden BRI has enabled us to develop and deliver a comprehensive range of training courses through our Food Academy. This partnership equips our teams with the knowledge and skills necessary to champion food safety, from risk prevention to core FSQA training.

Investing in people and expertise

In March, the EU FSQA Supplier Team Onsite facilitated the alignment of our team's new working methods. Since 2023, we've been adapting our approach to support an international supplier management strategy, emphasizing centralized oversight for multi-geography suppliers and enhancing strategic project management. The onsite was an opportunity for the team to meet, confirm our road map for 2024, and guarantee the implementation of our mission statement “Partnering with all teams to mitigate risk, drive standards, and be more than legally compliant – ensuring operational excellence with safe and high-quality ingredients for the consumer”

Our fulfillment centers live up to the highest food safety standards

With so many people in different roles working in 17 different countries (excluding the US) on three continents, the FSQA Food Safety team decided to put a renewed focus on codifying and professionalizing our standards, processes and products and scaling up best practices across markets and site locations. This renewed focus involves ensuring that our facilities consistently meet high food safety standards, which are verified through external certifications. This year, we aim to include an additional four distribution centers in the BRCGS certification program, further extending our commitment to maintaining the highest standards.

Mitigating risks: a peek into our Berlin Quality Lab

At our Fresh Campus in Berlin, our team at the Quality Lab is dedicated to ensuring the safety and quality of our products. We meticulously assess various quality parameters, including pH and moisture levels, to prevent the spread of bacteria and mold. Our selection process for evaluating products is guided by a thorough dynamic risk assessment that also considers food safety errors. By identifying and addressing these risks, we prioritize the safety of our customers and uphold the integrity of our brand. We work closely with our trusted suppliers, taking corrective actions to reduce errors and enhance the overall quality of our products.

Moisture analyzer in our Berlin Quality Lab

Advancement in our Quality Safety Culture Programme

HelloFresh achieved our first milestone: the successful rollout of the Quality & Safety Culture survey across the markets, partnering with Culture Excellence. This milestone enables us to implement impactful initiatives based on employee feedback, fostering a robust safety culture. As a result, we have seen several positive outcomes, including outstanding audit results, with 11 sites achieving the highest possible score in the BRCGS DC Audits.

Based on the survey feedback, we will introduce training, rewards and recognition, and openness and transparency initiatives. In Q3 2024, we will launch a new multilingual Health & Safety foundational compliance training programme for Distribution Centres (DCs). This includes standardised induction modules for Health & Safety, Food Safety, and HR, along with our first-ever centralised Learning Management System for DCs . To evaluate its impact, a second survey will be conducted later in Q3.

Stay tuned for more updates on how we are building a culture of quality, safety, and excellence at HelloFresh.