Responsible Sourcing

Sysco is committed to responsible sourcing in order to protect Ireland’s natural resources and preserve the future of our food industry for the generations to come. We agree with our customers, who demand responsibly sourced products. Their awareness of where their food comes from and need for confidence in the conditions in which it was produced inspires us to source nothing but the very best, and we collaborate with all our suppliers to meet our customers’ high standards.

Environmental Sustainability

Sysco is committed to sourcing responsibly from suppliers who respect our environment and who work to conserve our natural resources. Our support for Responsible Irish Fish scheme is just one example of this philosophy: our seafood is sourced in a manner that sustain stocks of fish by employing measures to ensure smaller catches and see that reproducing females are released back into the wild. Responsible Irish Fish members are also committed to cleaning the seas by bringing ashore marine debris when they come across it.

Sysco and Sysco require that all the packaging specially produced for the extensive range of Sysco brands uses a minimum of 35% post–consumer recycled materials: a percentage we expect to see grow and grow in years to come.

Social Sustainability

Sysco has worked with smaller rural producers throughout Ireland to develop their business, and to help promote the Irish rural community and sustain jobs in the food industry. Our policy of supporting artisan producers also ensures that the diversity of food products we enjoy will remain viable. In supporting the Responsible Irish Fish Scheme we support Irish fishing fleets and fish processors, which in turn helps to sustain the fishing community.

Economic Sustainability

Sysco works to develop a robust value chain and ensure an economically beneficial relationship for all our small business partners and suppliers. It is our policy to ensure that the prices paid to suppliers are fair, while still being able to remain competitive for our customers. We assist suppliers with developing their production, planning and pricing strategies, advise them on marketing and promotions strategies and assist them in meeting the highest quality assurance requirements.

Animal Welfare

Humane animal welfare practices are central to our responsible sourcing policy. We are committed to using suppliers who will go beyond the regulatory requirements, and we encourage all our suppliers to be industry leaders in the area of animal welfare. We require slaughter and processing plants and production to adhere to best practices in raising and handling, access to feed and water, facility design, environmental conditions, employee training, transportation practices, animal handling practices at the harvest facility and, for specified programs, handling practices on the farm.

We also require our suppliers of shell eggs to be in compliance with current animal welfare regulations in relation to egg production, such as food safety, animal welfare, worker safety, care of the environment, and in comparing commercial cage systems and free–range laying approaches.