Announcing the Pinnacle Club Plant of the Year – Sacramento Valley Walnut Growers!

This year’s Pinnacle Club Golf Tournament took place on a beautiful sunny day in Monterey, California on July 28th. We want to thank all of our members and their guests for attending, we are proud to have been able to bring everyone together to network and hit the links on the course. A special thank you to our sponsors for their kind and generous support: Co-Bank, Buhler Group Inc. /West-Link, Coldwell Solar, Inc., Bank of the West, and The Industrial Fumigant Company.At this time we want to congratulate Sacramento Valley Walnut Growers, the recipient of the 2016 Pinnacle Club Plant of the Year Award! Graciously accepting the award on behalf of Sacramento Valley Walnut Growers was Kiran Black.

“We’re honored to be recognized by DFA of California for our food safety programs, and are very proud of our facility and the efforts of our team.”—Kiran Black, Sales & Marketing Manager

Every year, the DFA food safety team participates in a process of reviewing candidates to receive our prestigious Plant of the Year award. This is not a straightforward process, every year we find ourselves searching for excellence, and discover it many times over among our DFA member facilities.To offer some perspective, this past year our food safety team conducted over 300 unannounced Food Safety GMP Audits, HACCP verifications, and Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) audits on our DFA member facilities as one part of our continuing member services in the realm of food safety. DFA recognizes hard work starts with each and every one of the packing facilities in our industry. Because of this, selecting a Plant of the Year is an exciting, yet very challenging task. Let’s review the selection criteria for the Plant of the Year….The Plant of the Year is a facility that has:

1. Demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement, as evidenced by their facility enhancements
2. Achieved success as a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Certified facility
3. Ranked as a top scoring facility during unannounced member GMP & Food Safety audits

In summary, Sacramento Valley Walnut Growers is recognized for going above and beyond in implementing the very best food safety practices, executes industry leading food safety policies company-wide, and acts as an exemplary role model for others to follow.

Company Overview:

Sacramento Valley Walnut Growers, LLC is a grower owned processor and marketer of California walnuts. Established in 2006, Sac Valley Walnut was founded on the idea of bringing together a small group of successful growers to present customers with the highest quality walnuts. The state of the art facility located in Yuba City has been designed to operate with maximum efficiency, maintain optimum quality and deliver safe food year-round.Sacramento Valley Walnut is committed to a culture of food safety and quality while embracing integrity, stability and service. Sac Valley Walnut has achieved GFSI accreditation through BRC’s Global Standard for Food Safety and is also HACCP certified. The Sacramento Valley Walnut team prides itself on being on the forefront of food safety and developing technical expertise to serve as a resource to its customers. Congratulations once again to Sacramento Valley Walnut Growers for a job well done!DFA would like to acknowledge and thank everyone that attended this year’s Pinnacle Club Golf Tournament and Award Ceremony. This event is about the members, and DFA is pleased to celebrate and share in supporting your achievements in food safety excellence!