quality

Assured

Food Safety & Quality

Your customers expect fresh, delicious produce grown to the highest standards for food safety and quality – and our comprehensive food safety and Quality Assurance processes make sure they get it.

Our expert growers and Quality Assurance teams work together to make sure every lot we sell meets or exceed industry standards in food safety, produce grading, and consistency – along with your specifications.

Auditable with full traceability from seed to shelf, our food safety and quality control processes deliver the healthy produce you need.

Quality delivered

that's the BC Hot House way. Contact us today to learn more about our Food Safety and Quality Assurance process.

Our Food Safety process

Annual safety audits

We follow the strict policies detailed in local and global Good Agricultural, Handling, and Manufacturing practices. Each year our Canadian farms and packing houses are audited and scored by independent Canada GAP personnel. Key evaluation areas include water quality, worker hygiene, facility sanitation, premise security, and record keeping/traceability.

Daily quality checks and shelf life tests

Before every shift, line supervisors review and perform comprehensive checks to ensure that proper care is always taken when handling produce. Quality Assurance teams carefully inspect each finished lot to make sure it meets and exceeds grade standards and customer specifications. Shelf life samples are collected from each lot and studied to help us continuously refine our growing, storage, and transportation processes.

Pesticide management program and residue testing

All our growers follow an integrated pest management program that relies primarily on biological controls such as ladybugs and wasps to control plant-damaging insects. Our hot house environment also protects vegetable plants from many pests that attack outdoor crops. Chemical spraying is used only when necessary.

When a pesticide is used, its application is strictly monitored and controlled to ensure safe, proper usage following both PMCA (Canada) and EPA (US) regulatory standards. After a specified pre-harvest period has elapsed, an independent laboratory tests produce for trace pesticide residues to concentrations as low as a part per billion. We also conduct random sampling to verify compliance of proper pesticide reporting and usage from all our growers. BC Hot House never markets any produce that may contain pesticide residues.

Working with external growing partners

BC Hot House partners with producers in U.S. and Mexico to grow product that meets our exacting standards and mirrors what we produce locally during our growing season. We work closely with our southern partners to make sure best practices in growing and food safety are rigorously followed.
Each partner is audited annually by an independent third party professional agency for Good Agricultural Practices. Produce is also federally inspected at the border crossings into Canada (CFIA) and United States (FDA). When produce arrives at our facilities, Quality Assurance teams to make sure all produce meets or exceeds all industry standards for food safety, produce grading, and consistency, along with any requested customer specifications.