Company Profile
Company Overview
Griffith Foods is a product development partner specializing in food ingredients, serving global and regional food companies worldwide. We’re committed to helping our customers succeed through true, collaborative innovation. Who we are, how we help our customers win, and what we do are all driven by our Purpose – We Blend Care and Creativity to Nourish the World.
Griffith Foods is the caring, creative product development partner whose people help our customers meet the evolving needs and desires of consumers in ways that respect and sustain the planet. Join Griffith Foods in Creating Better Together™.
Working for a Better Tomorrow
Griffith Foods Sustainability Platform is founded on People, Planet and Performance.
People
Our culture is built on supporting our employees, their families and associations that are committed to serving individuals living in our surrounding communities. As a food company, we feel a special obligation to alleviate hunger and improve nutrition; we encourage our employees and business partners to be engaged citizens.
Planet
With locations in four continents, we understand the importance of acting as good stewards to our shared planet. Griffith is reinforcing our commitment to that promise through responsible administration of the Earth’s resources. Today, focus is being placed on energy efficiency, water conservation and sustainable sourcing. Tomorrow will bring new learnings and opportunities with an ongoing concentration on our world.
Performance
Griffith Foods' continued success is directly related to the advancement of our customers and a strategic approach to business management. We are dedicated to ethically and responsibly growing our customers' brands while maintaining our food safety excellence.
Company History
A Heritage of Innovation and Global Outreach
As a privately held company, Griffith Foods has always taken a long-term view and focused on doing what's right for customers, employees and the food industry. Since 1919, we've built a reputation for premier quality and dependability with our customer partners. Using innovation as a foundation for differentiation and a global curiosity to discover new opportunities, we are driven to help our customers succeed by addressing emerging needs in the food industry.
History
Laboratory Roots
In the early 1900s, Enoch Luther (E.L.) Griffith and his son, Carroll Ladd (C.L.), are offered a tremendous opportunity by a family friend nearing retirement: to assume leadership of his small pharmaceutical business, for free. This generous offer changes the life path for C.L., who planned on attending the University of Illinois to study agriculture. Instead, he enrolled at Northwestern University School of Pharmacology, which only strengthens his interest in and dedication to the world of science. After graduation, the father-and-son team work hard to run “The Laboratory.”
Bringing Science to the Food Industry
A new vision for the company is presented by E.L. to his son, C.L., in 1919, based on market opportunities and needs. Griffith Laboratories is established with a focus of “bringing science to the food industry.” The company, initially, is dedicated to making better meat and bakery products – enhancing flavours, improving functionality, creating faster and more efficient processing, reducing costs and introducing safer alternatives. Using new technologies and building personal customer relationships, the company initiates its now-legendary “customization approach” and sets the foundation for future industry advancements. ?????
Diverse Innovations to Meet Changing Market Needs
1920s: Specialty flours used in sausages, German quick curing meats processing using Prague Salt, liquid seasonings, and new processes for meat pumping.
30s and 40s: The Big Boy pump, Prague Pickle Scale, Ham Press, Prague Powder, dry soluble seasonings, and specialized antioxidants.
50s and 60s: Mince Master equipment line, Vacugas process for sterilization, soy protein concentrates in powder form, natural smoke flavours, culinary arts introduced and influence development efforts.
70s, 80s and 90s: Unit Paks offer processors and foodservice operations optimized batching and back-of-house efficiencies, HVP flavour extensions, Flava Glaze for BBQ, authentic liquid blends, unique coating systems with increased durability and functionality in baked and fried applications.
2000s: Culinary-based Technovations programs, seasonal flavour programs, yield management technologies, salt/sodium substitutes, MSG replacers, acid buffering blends, Listeria inhibitors, shelf stable creams, and many more.
Going Global
In the 1920s, as the company began to look beyond the borders of the US for new technologies, it also established its first international facility in Toronto. By the end of the 1950s, exciting growth led to the opening of a facility in Mexico and additional plant openings in the US.
In the 1960s, Dean L. Griffith, C.L.'s son, recognized that markets around the world were evolving and international customers would prefer to purchase products locally. His global spirit, passion and vision provided the foundation for Griffith Laboratories’ global expansion.
Continued Investment and Expansion
The 1990s and new millennium brought significant new investments in culinary capabilities – including a state-of-the-art Culinary Center at the Alsip headquarters and in Europe – to provide customers with additional creative and artistic resources for their product development efforts.
Custom Culinary® was acquired to expand the company’s product portfolio. Innova®, a manufacturer of savory flavours, was also established. Additionally, new facilities were built in Brazil, Southern China and South Korea. In the 2000s, the journey continued with exciting demographic and market opportunities driving greater expansion, including the acquisition of a liquids facility in Avon, Ohio for Custom Culinary®, focused on production of sauces and soups. New Griffith manufacturing units were also built in Mexico, India and Northern China. Additional culinary centers have been constructed within targeted facilities throughout the world, and each day we are honored to host and work alongside our valued customers, suppliers and business partners to create winning food products.
Becoming Griffith Foods
In 2016, Griffith Laboratories began an evolution to become Griffith Foods. Our new name and brand identity fully captures who we are and what we do to help our customers succeed. Griffith Foods will continue to be the product development partner who delivers the capabilities and expertise that our customers have come to expect.