US Foods

US Foods 

US Foods® is one of America’s great food companies and a leading foodservice distributor, partnering with approximately 250,000 customer locations to help their businesses succeed. With more than 70 broadline locations and more than 90 cash-and-carry stores, US Foods provides its customers with a broad and innovative food offering and a comprehensive suite of e-commerce, technology, and business solutions.
 
Since 2023, US Foods has partnered with the Rainforest Alliance Corporate Advisory Services team to undertake a multi-year initiative to identify, quantify, and take steps to help mitigate the potential environmental and social risks associated with certain commodities known to negatively affect the world’s forests. This project kicked off with an assessment of the company’s deforestation-related policies, procedures, and reporting requirements for its potentially higher-risk supply chains using the Accountability Framework as a benchmark.

Based on the findings, US Foods developed a new Forests Policy and updated its Human Rights Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct. The updated policies are aligned with the Accountability Framework, and set out implementation requirements, including milestones and commodity-specific roadmaps, to meet responsible sourcing commitments. Based on these policies, US Foods established compliance procedures (such as monitoring systems to track and report progress) across their relevant Exclusive Brands commodity supply chains.

By carrying out a gap assessment based on the Accountability Framework, US Foods was able to turn its sustainability ambitions into actionable steps.

“By using the Accountability Framework as a benchmark, we were able to get a clear understanding of our strengths, as well as opportunities to improve our policies, systems, and supplier practices. This gap assessment has helped us to further address potential deforestation risks in our Exclusive Brands products and supply chains. The value of the assessment was its clarity and focus on practical, implementable actions, giving us concrete steps to integrate our ambitions into day-to-day operations.”
 
– Hannah Koski, Senior Director, Sustainability, US Foods