How do herbs get to your plate?
The beauty of Schwartz herbs is that you can pick them up freshly sealed from your local supermarket and have "a taste you trust" on your dining table just hours later. But the journey to the supermarket is a long one with quality control carefully exercised throughout the process. Here we delve a little deeper into the journey your herbs make to reach your plate.
Having sourced products from tropical and subtropical developing areas of the world since the late 1800s, you could say we're a bit of an expert in ensuring fresh herbs reach your door from one of the 40 countries we source our top quality ingredients from. Our quest for quality is ingrained throughout our whole business. The process begins at the source where we educate our farmers in the best ways to keep the herbs lasting longer. We teach them to use processes that ensure their produce is top quality.
We also don't source our herbs from any old supplier... during our 200-odd years in the business we've nurtured strong relationships with only the best suppliers from around the world. This has enabled us to get closer to the source of the raw materials, giving us valuable input into the entire process - from farm to frying pan.
Learn more about our quality control measures by visiting the Our Quality pages.
‘TASTE YOU TRUST’
A strategic, quality-oriented global sourcing approach
The McCormick Global Ingredients Limited procurement team sources spices and herbs from over 40 countries around the world. The sourcing organisation has a combined total of more than 100 years of procurement experience in the spice trade; and we put that expertise to work every day to find the highest quality spices and herbs around the world. Through this team, we have established long-held strategic alliances with many of our suppliers and with selected farm communities.
We have intimate knowledge of local farm and market conditions everywhere we operate. As part of our preventative strategy, we continuously expand our presence in source countries in order to bring our high quality standards as close to the product as possible. For instance, we have joint ventures in India concentrating on red pepper, and in Indonesia focusing on cinnamon, both with the goal of managing the raw material supply chain back to the source.
We have developed key strategic alliances in other major spice-growing countries, contributing to a network of suppliers who help us build strong ties with farming communities and help them to continuously improve the quality and productivity of their crops.
Cultivating exceptional suppliers
McCormick is committed to developing and maintaining a strong and healthy supplier base. This has allowed us to get closer to the raw material source. Through the close and local relationships, we are in a better position to improve the product quality at the farm level through education like helping the farmers understand that quick drying processes help avoid mould and teaching them how storing the product in a safe, dry place helps prevent potential issues later. With this type of education and McCormick’s ability to manage product integrity from source country to end product, farmers deliver a better and more consistent product which leads to steadier demand and better income.
For further information on the quality of our products, see the page on Our Quality. If you have more questions regarding our sourcing, please contact us.
