From the people who work here to the processes we use to create superior beef and pork products, the idea of being Genuinely Better® infuses everything we do. Here are some of the many ways we’re succeeding every day.

#1: TRUST
The Excel® brand heritage dates back to 1936 – when a person’s word was their bond, and everyone was in it for the long haul. You know what? We still believe in it, and we practice it in our drive to be Clean, Cold, Correct and On-Time™ to help grow our customers’ businesses.

#2: DEPENDABILITY DEPENDS ON DETAILS
We have invested millions of dollars into systems that track every detail of our inventory at any given moment. Our box storage systems, GPS units and wireless technology, for example, deliver exhaustive and accurate information to the people who need to know.

#3: HOMEGROWN VALUES AND PRODUCTS
Excel Fresh Pork is the product of homegrown values. We collaborate with many family farms right here in the Midwest – growers with an affinity for detail and distaste for mediocrity – which helps us to produce a more consistent and flavorful meat.

#4: CONSISTENCY IS KING
Our obsession with delivering to specification and consistent carcass sorting has led to the use of optical readers and computer vision-grading of meat in our fed-cattle beef plants.

#5: CHILLY VOYAGES
During transport, we focus on food safety practices. Our trailers are chilled before the meat is brought on board, then the meat is arranged away from trailer walls to maintain cold-air circulation during warm month transports. In addition, refrigeration units monitor and adjust temperature in transit. So, our drivers don’t need to stop to make modifications maintaining the cold chain, helping us in our goal to ensure cold products at delivery.

#6: HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY
The Excel brand has always been a special name for everyone who has worked for the company. In 1960, a reporter asked founder Sam Marcus, "What is your secret for success?"

His answer was, "There isn’t one. You just do an honest job and deliver an honest package." That honest package, under the Excel brand, meant a consistent, high-quality product – and is the basis of our Clean, Cold, Correct and On-Time goal and our aim to provide products that help increase our customers’ sales.

#7: TECHNOLOGY AIMED AT REDUCING MICROBIAL LOAD
The hide-on wash, installed at all of our fed-beef plants, is a relatively new and promising invention in the long history of cattle processing. After the cattle are bled, an antimicrobial spray is applied at over 600 psi, followed by a water rinse. Our own data from test swabs shows a reduction in general microbial load when this process is utilized, which helps us in our quest to deliver quality meat that is Clean, Cold, Correct and On-Time.

#8: WE INVEST IN SAFETY AND QUALITY
Through the last 10 years, we’ve made investments totaling more than $1 billion in meat science research, technology and warehousing, innovations and interventions. For example, our multimillion dollar investment in chub-chilling equipment helps us reduce microbial growth and increases shelf life of product in our customers’ coolers.

#9: WE ARE CONNECTED
Our drivers and dispatch are linked through wireless technology every mile of the way. This allows for real-time order status availability – online, anytime – which helps us to deliver on time.

#10: WE ARE TECHNOLOGY LEADERS
Our food safety and quality-control processes make us a leader in the industry, allowing us to make products that can help our customers' bottom line. Our long track record in technological leadership includes advancement in: carcass mapping, hide washing, VerifEYE®* carcass inspection system, thermal pasteurization, chub chillers, CO₂ stunners and blast chill.

#11: WE ARE ALWAYS THINKING
We aren’t the type to settle for the status quo. Neither are our customers. So, Excel Fresh Meats has a dedicated research team for innovation and process improvements. This team constantly strives to produce new and convenient meat solutions and products for your business.

#12: MINIMIZING OUR ECO-FOOTPRINT
Advancements in technology bring added environmental responsibility. Cargill strives to lessen our impact in any area we can and to recycle or reuse as many resources as possible. For example, our wastewater management system is designed to capture greenhouse gases for use as fuel, which is more environmentally friendly and energy efficient.

#13: HUMANE ANIMAL TREATMENT
At Cargill, we take pride in knowing that we adhere to the standards set by Dr. Temple Grandin, the American Meat Institute Foundation and the Humane Slaughter Act for humane animal treatment. On-staff Cargill animal handling specialists aid in improving animal well-being, and our animal handling practices help keep stress at a minimum. That is also good for our products. For example, studies show that trauma or fear in hogs raises lactic acid levels, which makes meat more tough. Our processes ultimately help provide tender and delicious products – which help our customers build confidence and enhance their reputation.

#14: A PROMISE IS A PROMISE
It’s not hard to find our promise. It’s right there on the box. We don’t hide it, and we strive to stand behind it. That Excel brand promise is to constantly strive to be Clean, Cold, Correct and On-Time. In addition, our mission is to provide reliable, consistent products and services, enabling our customers to meet evolving consumer needs and build satisfaction, loyalty, profit and productivity.

#15: THE AUTOMATED SHIPPING EXPERTS
Our shipping is almost a completely automated operation. In the warehouse, we use computer technology and a robotic storage and retrieval system to increase accuracy and efficiency and to reduce handling of boxes. Palletization is also entirely mechanized. These processes preserve product integrity and help order accuracy by minimizing the number of times each box is handled and the risk of human error.

#16: WE ARE PIONEERS
We joined forces with academic and food processing experts to pioneer the technology for thermal pasteurization. Together with hide-on carcass wash, our proactive food safety processes strive to eliminate harmful bacteria such as E.coli O157:H7.

#17: BEAUTIFULLY COLORED PORK
When it comes to cold-chain management, we hold to the strictest of standards that strive to deliver optimal color, as well as flavor, tenderness and shelf life to our pork products. The goal of the blast chill process is to swiftly cool the carcass within 30 minutes of harvest. This improves loin quality by 15 percent and reduces purge by 25 percent. We were one of the first major U.S. pork processors to use both CO₂ stunners and blast chillers, which easily explains the consistently superior color of our pork.

#18: SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR
Why was Cargill selected to be the first-ever recipient of the McDonald’s USA “U.S. Supplier of the Year Award”? According to McDonald’s, Cargill’s “expertise and insight” along with its “energy and willingness to collaborate” were the reasons we were selected for the honor. We are honored, but our extraordinary work with McDonald’s isn’t unusual. In fact, that’s just how we like to do business.

#19: WE DON'T SETTLE FOR STANDARD
Our food safety and quality-control processes meet or exceed standard industry protocols. In fact, we are considered an industry leader. For example, Cargill voluntarily implemented an HACCP plan years before taking such steps was federally mandated. Our hard work and extra care are not just for bragging rights — we do it because it’s right.

#20: OPEN LINES OF COMMUNICATION ARE KEY TO GOOD BUSINESS
As members of the Excel brand team, we like to talk about our products. But we like to listen even more. Really hearing what the consumer wants and communicating it to the right people in each step of the production process to meet demands is an important part of our business and is key to maintaining quality and consistency.

#21: WE KEEP ON TRUCKIN' FOR BETTER ON-TIME SERVICE
The Excel brand utilizes its Diverse Logistics Portfolio (Core Contract Carriers, Private Fleet, Brokerage Business, LTL and Forwarding Services) to provide flexible capacity to effectively manage the seasonality in our business. At the end of the day, this adds up to better on-time service to our valued customers when and where they need it.

#22: FARM-TO-FORK MANAGEMENT LEAVES LITTLE TO CHANCE
We begin by sourcing cattle from producers who employ management practices known to improve the likelihood of yielding high-quality beef. And we continue monitoring quality right up until we deliver your order.

#23: BLAST FREEZERS ARE A BOON TO OUR PORK COLOR
By rapidly dropping the temperature of pork carcasses, we are able to stop the postmortem chemical reactions that cause pH decline and color degradation. We use blast chill to preserve the fresh pork color our customers want and love.

#24: WE TAKE CUSTOMER COLLABORATION SERIOUSLY
We collaborated with a retailer to create a private label choice beef brand for their stores. Working closely with the customer, we found a way to meet their specific needs and successfully provide their consumers with quality tender and juicy beef.

#25: WE’RE IN A CUSTOMER FRAME OF MIND
Cargill has adopted the customer frame of reference to help us approach and solve problems the right way. You see it in many places, as everyone makes an effort to consider the customer and, by extension, the consumer point of view.

#26: WE ARE PROBLEM SOLVERS
When facts pointed to a limited prime rib supply one holiday season, the Cargill brand team got right to work on a solution. As a service-minded provider working for you, our brand offers the answer: Carver’s Tradition®. The Carver’s Tradition brand includes all of our product codes for strip loin, top sirloin and bone-in strip loin.

#27: VERIFEYE®* HELPS SEE CONTAMINATION THE HUMAN EYE CAN’T
We were the first processor in the country to use VerifEYE* technology in all of our fed-cattle plants to visualize and remove trace contaminants from beef carcasses before they leave the harvest floor.

#28: INDUSTRY-LEADING BONE AND DEFECT ELIMINATION SYSTEMS
Our elimination systems are designed to detect things that get in the way of enjoying great-tasting meals featuring Excel Fresh Meats. The systems remove bone chips and cartilage while desinewing the muscles containing connective tissue and tendons.

#29: WE CREATE
Create isn’t just a word in a snappy saying. When Cargill says Collaborate > Create > Succeed, it means something to us and our customers. We’ve created processes for ground beef, specification rooms and tenderness labs – that strive to make our products better. And we protect our intellectual property, because we value the competitive advantages we can offer our customers.

#30: OUR PRODUCTS ARE THE CANVAS FOR CULINARY ARTISTS
The design of an outstanding eating experience begins with the end in mind. We begin with an artist’s palette for good taste — superior sourcing of animals; ideal environments before, during and after harvest; and special processing techniques. It all combines to give chefs what they need to succeed. The superior tenderness, mouthwatering juiciness, exceptional shelf life and the rich flavor are exactly what our foodservice customers need in order to provide the satisfying eating experience their consumers demand.

#31: THE EXCHANGE OF HIGH STANDARDS
Cargill relies on our pork producers’ homegrown values, attention to detail and their aversion to mediocrity. They, in turn, rely upon our technical training and abilities, company stability and industry leadership. Together, we bring our strengths to the table to meet our customers’ high standards for longer-lasting, better-selling pork.

#32: CONSISTENCY IS KEY TO OUR BUSINESS
We maintain the consistency of our beef by removing all possible subjectivity and replacing it with objective measurement. Our vision grading systems are key to improving sorting consistency and taking the guesswork out of judgments needed to evaluate distinct carcass attributes like ribeye area, fat thickness and degree of marbling. This level of objectivity directly contributes to the consistency of our products.

#33: OUR RELENTLESS INNOVATIONS FOR GROUND BEEF DELIVER
Cargill does everything possible to provide our customers with quality ground beef that ultimately delivers a superior taste for that critical moment in a consumer’s meal. From our food safety interventions to our packaging process technology, we strive to deliver conveniently packaged ground beef that reduces waste and shrink, saves labor and produces higher store rings.

#34: OUR PORK BRINGS DINERS BACK
When it comes to genuinely more appealing and tasty pork, Excel Fresh Meats knows “better.” And so do diners. When restaurants deliver a consistently good center-of-the-plate eating experience with great-tasting pork, they can build a community of loyal customers. Those who enjoy dining out will love the appearance and flavor of Excel Pork, produced, in part, due to our committed suppliers who meet requirements for acceptable genetics, nutrition and production facilities. In addition, the hogs are graded for leanness and weight as well as random meat-quality attributes. The fact is, nothing is left to chance when it comes to Excel Pork on your consumer’s plate.

#35: WE ARE STUDIOUS
Cargill is an industry leader that has increased the standards for beef and pork in both appearance and flavor and continues to focus on improving food safety interventions. But we aren’t going to stop and rest on our laurels. We study everything, from the relationship between genetics and tenderness to plant airflow to consumer taste trends. Our thinking is this: If we can measure it, we can act on it and then improve on it to benefit our customers and their businesses.

#36: WE PROVIDE OUR CUSTOMERS MORE THAN MEAT
Our customers know that when they buy Excel branded products from Cargill, they are also receiving the tools they need to turn their meat into genuinely greater profits. In addition to superb and great-tasting beef and pork, we also provide additional support, such as our consumer insights and demographic trends. Customers may also look to us for shelf-space optimization, marketing support, sales data analysis, product mix and pricing, research on buying behavior and order forecasting.

#37: WE UNDERSTAND DIVERSITY
Understanding and marketing to the multicultural consumer population can help increase sales and keep them coming back. The fact is, muscle cuts preferred by Anglos are not the same cuts used in traditional dishes of other ethnic groups who favor organ meats such as tongue and tripe, and cuts derived from other parts of the animal — such as oxtail. The complete line of Excel Case Ready Variety Meats helps retailers win the respect and business of both the multicultural consumer and the adventuresome Anglo gourmet.

#38: THE EASE OF EXCELLENCE
General wisdom says that easier is better. We agree. Our convenient coding system on individual ground beef chubs simplifies inventory management and traceability. We set the standard in the industry to provide a Product Identity System in all grinding plants for individual chubs. Our system details which plant, line and time the ground beef was processed, the use/freeze by date, production period and product description.

#39: CONSISTENT PORK. AGAIN AND AGAIN
We create the right environment to produce our pork products to specifications, including laser light alignment technology, process verification and in-line application of ergonomics for more effective and efficient job performance. Our advanced spec system also provides real-time information that allows us the flexibility to consistently produce for various customer product requirements. It all combines to ensure our customers receive consistent quality, size and taste with every cut of pork, every time.  

#40: ROBUST FLAVOR BEGINS EARLY
Beef this succulent and robust isn’t produced by chance. It begins on the ranch and continues through the feeding phase with carefully selected and scientifically proven genetics, management and feeding practices. We begin with carefully selected producers who use recognized industry best practices and standard operating procedures to supply us with cattle that meet our strict standards, time after time. Our experts carefully identify when harvest should occur to assure reliably good beef for our customers and their discerning consumers.

#41: WE KNOW BEEF, BUT WE ALSO KNOW BUSINESS
Beef may be our first love, but we also thrive on the business of helping our customers succeed. The Excel brand is sustainable, with long-term potential growth for our customers. It is unique: our products and services set customers apart from the competition. Our brand reaps profits, and our strategies fit the strengths and capabilities of our customers. Our beef. Our brand. Our business. And the strength of all three, dedicated to our customers' success.

#42: WE CREATE IDEAL ENVIRONMENTS FOR NEW IDEAS
At Cargill, we are focused on the future of fresh meat, so that our customers can focus on the future of their own businesses. Our team of food scientists and culinary experts collaborate daily in our advanced USDA-inspected pilot plant and fully equipped test kitchen, to deliver Genuinely Better solutions to our customers. Our customers don’t have to worry, as they know the next innovation will be coming soon – from the minds at Cargill.

#43: ALL THE RIGHT TRIMMINGS
Great craftsmanship and optimal consistency are what our customers expect.We use our precision work to consistently produce a wide variety of pork products that meet customers' needs and budgets. Precise trim specifications allow for a leaner, more edible cut for the consumer. Less trim, less waste and less labor translate into savings Cargill can pass on to the customer.

#44: WE KNOW WHAT CONSUMERS NEED
Did you know that some cultures prefer their meat to be handled by people and not machines? We do. That is why each package of our Excel Case Ready Variety Meats – popular with both the multicultural consumer and adventurous Anglo gourmets – is filled by hand. Our professionals are chosen for their hands-on product knowledge as well as their understanding of different cultures.

#45: SCIENCE EXPERTS LOVE CATTLE
Who would have thought those high school science classes could lead to better beef? Our scientists are experts in genetics and the resulting cattle selection, because they know that quality meat begins with quality animals. They work with our fed cattle suppliers, who are chosen for their ability to give the utmost care and proper feeding of their animals and produce products that are superior for size, tenderness and quality grade. Tracking and monitoring gives us a measurable process that allows our suppliers and experts to continually improve performance and better select for quality.

#46: WE MEET CHANGING CONSUMER DEMANDS
No matter the current culinary trend, Cargill and the Excel brand are already on top of things. We are constantly upgrading raw materials by removing fat, separating lean meat from connective tissues and removing bone and gristle from our products — while working to meet the latest consumer demands with new and convenient meat solutions and products.

#47: CLEANLINESS IS A PRIORITY
Visit one of our cattle plants and you’ll see our teams working hard to lower the risks posed by harmful bacteria. Our stream of industry firsts and interventions, such as hide-on carcass wash, thermal pasteurization and VerifEYE* inspection technology are evidence of our commitment to reduce microscopic contaminants. We are committed to our ongoing efforts in antimicrobial interventions while continuing to produce high-quality, great-tasting products desired by your consumers.

#48: WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
At Cargill, we have streamlined our processes to protect our products and our customers' profitability. Our methods for the rendering of cattle carcasses are a superb example. There is little to no waste. Inedible tallow is used for pet food, ruminant feeds and industrial uses. Edible tallow is sold to refiners. Meat and bone meal is used for non-ruminant feeds, pet food, gelatin and additional uses in the food, pharmaceutical and film industries. Perhaps the phrase should be waste not, use more?

#49: WE ARE THE FRESH PORK EXPERTS
The Excel brand invests heavily in the right processes, the right data and the best people to help unleash our customers' profit potential in pork sales. Trimming decreases waste and increases the salable yields. And limited variances in loin-eye area give our pork consistent plate coverage. So, they look as good on the plate as they do on our customers' profit statement. Customers can also tap into a wealth of consumer insights and innovative marketing strategies to realize their profit potential and move more pork through their doors.

#50: CARCASS MAPPING HELPS TO REDUCE MICROBES
We believe that our carcass mapping procedure is a very effective route to help reduce microbes. The procedure, designed in conjunction with scientists from the USDA Meat Animal Research Center, monitors the bacterial efficacy of our food safety interventions and processes at the following key points:

• Pre-hide-on carcass wash
• Post-hide-on carcass wash
• Pre-evisceration
• Prior to chilling
• Post-chilling

Everything we do is to improve product performance and safety for the critical moment when your customers sit down to enjoy Excel Fresh Meats. Don’t expect us to take shortcuts. That is a path we aren't prepared to travel.

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*VerifEYE® is a registered trademark of eMerge Interactive, Inc.