Consumers today want to know that their food comes from asafe, eco-friendly source. Sysco wants to help our customers reduce food milesby purchasing products from local suppliers; this helps promote freshness andsustainability. Sysco Portland is also committed to offering a vast selectionof sustainable, natural, rBST free, biodegradable, renewable, compostable andorganic products to provide our clients with the greatest variety of foodproducts and business services in the industry.

Local Foods
Local foods help to reduce delivery miles, also called foodmiles. Local foods are expected to promote local economies, to be fresher andmore flavorful while reducing handling issues, including lower transportationcosts and using fewer natural resources. Sysco receives its local products fromsuppliers in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Northern California (as far south asMonterey).

Eco-Friendly
An alternative to goods usually purchased in most stores. Theseproducts are made with ecological and environmental impact in mind through outharvest and/or production.

Going Green
This is a comprehensive set of business plans and actions thatcan be taken to deliberately reduce and/or eliminate harmful effects on theenvironment, such as using bio-diesel or recycled truck wash water.

Certified Foods
A guarantee by the producer as having met certain requirementsto ensure their product is following the principle of sustainable agricultureand production. Sysco carries products with USDA organic certification as wellas certified by the Food Alliance, which is a third party organization thatupholds sustainable practices.

Organic Foods
A US Department of Agriculture certification of the NationalOrganic Program maintains that the products avoid the use of most artificialinputs, like synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, and bans the use of animalby-products, antibiotics and sewage sludge among other practices.

Natural Foods
Natural foods are minimally processed. Natural foods do notinclude ingredients such as refined sugars, refined flours, milled grains,hydrogenated oils, sweeteners, food colors, or flavorings. In protein production, this also means no hormones, no antibiotics and 100% vegetarian feddiet.

Sustainable
A system of food producing that protects natural resources,safeguards the health and well being of workers and consumers, and enhancescommunities; this includes methods of harvesting or using a resource so thatthe resource is not depleted or permanently damaged and protects the future ofthe environment.

Socially Responsible
The principle that our company contributes to the welfare ofsociety and is not solely devoted to maximizing profits.

Safe
Our commitment to providing safe, quality assured products toour customers.  To ensure that ourcustomers are being provided with the highest quality products Sysco requiresour suppliers to sign a hold harmless agreement which states that they areresponsible for the integrity of their product..

Compostable
Made from nature and can be returned to nature fairly easilythrough a composting process.

Renewable Resources
A resource is considered renewable if it can be naturallyreplenished. Sometimes this refers to sources of electricity such as solar,wind, geothermal, biomass and hydroelectric.  In food service, there are products made from corn, sugarcane, wheat, rice, potatoes, or bamboo that are replaced by new growthannually. 

Recyclable/Reusable
A product or material that can be converted back into materialto be used again in manufacturing new goods is considered recyclable.  Reusable products are ones that areused again after salvaging by special treatment or processing.

Bio-diesel
A diesel-equivalent, processed fuel derived from biologicalsources, such as vegetable oils, which can be used in unmodified diesel enginevehicles.

r/BST Free
Sysco distributes dairy products that are r/BST (r/BGH) free.This means that our supplier will not treat any cows with r/BST, a syntheticgrowth hormone, for milk used in the products specifically labeled as r/BSTFree.