sysco: wal-mart for restaurants
A year ago, Alex Pickett wrote about SYSCO foods. The thrust of the article is that much of your dining out experience is affected by this huge conglomerate of food service, and that SYSCO keeps on growing and growing.
SYSCO — an acronym for Systems and Services Company — is North America’s largest food distribution company and has more of an impact on our food supply than nearly any other company in the country.
Well, they are growing again. They got the ok for $5 million in incentives from Pasco and Zephyrhills to build a new distribution center there.
According to the August 17 edition of SYSCO’s Market Update, much of the foods this time of year come from Mexico, Canada, and California. In addition to some domestic farms, vegetables are imported from Peru, Guatamala, British Columbia, and Chile. Florida is mentioned once; Florida lemons will be harvested later this month.
SYSCO “The Future Of Foodservice” can be found at http://www.syscowcf.com/index.htm
Tags: development, food, pasco
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August 21st, 2007 at 11:05 am
I used to work at a nursing home kitchen when I was a kid, as I recall there was not one single item they bought from a supplier other than sysco except the bread.
August 21st, 2007 at 11:08 am
The food at nursing homes is from Sysco and very institutonal food. Mostly from cans-the home of chef boyardee.
August 21st, 2007 at 10:28 pm
As long as consumers continue to buy crappy tasting produce from other countries that requires more money for fossil fuel transportion than for growing, grown and harvested by people working for slave wages, and possibly using toxic chemical fertilizers and herbacides that are banned in the U.S., just because it is “cheap”, grocery stores will continue to sell it. We have to demand better. Spend your money on local seasonal foods. Check labels for country of origin and pass on the foreign grown produce. Tell your grocer that you want local veggies. And take back the food that doesn’t taste like it should for a refund. Nothing will change if we remain complacent.
August 22nd, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Not true. I worked at one of the major upscale restaurants here in our metro area. Sysco has access to any food you could desire or want. They have low quality food and high quality food. That’s why they are the number one supplier to everyone (not just nursing homes).
August 30th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Kara,as far as Sysco and alf’s and nusing homes it is up to the owners of the facilities what they allow the kitchen supervisors to buy the stinger the owner is the lowest quality of food is bought for the delight of their residents. The real problem is that the state allows this quality of food to be sold to institutions,they can not tell the owner what they can spend. Would you like Hormel milk for breakfast/
August 30th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Junior, the state is the problem. Most nursing homes are dependant on state money. Their food budget is very low. Sysco is not to blame for food service establishments’choice of product. Kara is right, Sysco supplies all levels of quality. Also, Sysco has the highest rate of food safety. That’s another major reason that nursing homes use them.
August 31st, 2007 at 11:07 am
Mari I have to disagree with Sysco’s safe delivery. They have delivered Dannon’s yogurt that was passed the experation date. The yogurt looked like water had been packaged in it instead of yogurt. That is not good reliable service,anywhere,many could have made very sick. What else could have happened, your guess is as good as mine.