Sourcing

The following is considered in our purchasing practices

Oversight of Ingredient Sourcing

A team of Thomas Cuisine’s most influential and senior Chefs, company-wide, coach and mentor other Thomas Cuisine culinarians. They participate in recipe development and are deeply involved in our company-wide commitment to source better ingredients.

Plant Proteins

Legumes and lentils are a common source of protein for those who don’t eat meat or those who eat meat and want to decrease their animal protein consumption. While legumes are a good source of protein, they aren’t a “complete protein.” If you rely on beans as a source of protein and your diet doesn’t allow for any animal products, you’ll need to include a complementary protein to your meals such as grains, nuts and seeds. Thomas Cuisine encourages the use of clean plant proteins in our everyday diets and menus and sources plant proteins from local sources as well as our main broadline.

Clean Proteins

Our clean protein focus includes sourcing sustainable grass-fed and local whenever possible. Our preferred proteins are hormone and antibiotic free, grass-fed and minimally processed. We source cleaner proteins because we recognize the health benefits and what we offer is more than just food. We house roast our deli meats with no preservatives and no added preservatives whenever possible, based on business partner requirements.

Ongoing Ingredient Evaluation

We have developed a scoring methodology that allows each of our locations to rate each ingredient and determine those that are healing, support good nutrition and enhance the delicious applications for which they are utilized. This includes a list of qualities we look for in the ingredients we source, as well as a list of qualities and ingredients we avoid.

Our stance on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

Thomas Cuisine is making an effort not to source GMOs as preferred products and as an organization we are committed to removing them from our supply chain as they are identified.

Cage Free Eggs and Broiler Chicken Welfare

Thomas Cuisine has asked our suppliers to take the following actions for 100% of our chicken supply by 2024 or sooner if possible:

  • Meet the Global Animal Partnership (GAP) maximum stocking density standard < 6 pounds per square feet.
  • Provide chickens with enriched environments including natural light, litter, hay bales, and perches that meet GAP standards.
  • Use GAP approved genetic strains for slower growing chickens.
  • Humanely render chickens unconscious prior to shackling using Controlled and Low Atmospheric Stunning.

Thomas Cuisine demonstrates compliance with the above standards through a third-party auditing system.