Johnsonville Foods
 | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Food processing |
| Founded | 1945 |
| Founder |
Ralph F. Stayer Alice Stayer |
| Headquarters | Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Products | Sausage |
| Website |
www |
Johnsonville Sausage is a sausage company headquartered in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin.[1] Founded in 1945, it is one of the largest sausage producers in the United States[2] and the largest sausage brand by revenue in the United States.[3] Johnsonville sausage is available in more than 35 countries. Privately owned, the company has approximately 1,400 employees.[4]
History
In 1945, Ralph F. and Alice Stayer opened a butcher shop and named it after their hometown, Johnsonville, Wisconsin. The sausage made in their butcher shop came from an old family recipe, which originated from the family tree from 19th-century Austria.[5]
On September 3, 2015, Kenosha Beef International voluntarily recalled 89,234 pounds of pork sausage patties marketed as Johnsonville Cheddar Cheese & Bacon Grillers after consumers found metal fragments in them.[6] The product was manufactured by Kenosha Beef International, and contaminated product was sent to grocery stores in 11 states.[7] The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service classified the recall as Class I, and no reports of injury or illness have occurred.[8]
Products
Johnsonville Sausage produces a variety of sausage products, including: brats, grillers, Italian sausage, smoked-cooked links, breakfast sausage in fully cooked and fresh varieties, chicken sausage, meatballs and summer sausage.[9]
Slaughterhouses
In 2009, the National Pork Board ranked Johnsonville Foods first in sow slaughter capacity. The company had the facilities to slaughter 3,250 pigs every day, 400 more than the next largest company.[10]
Animal welfare controversy
In March 2013, Johnsonville Foods came under public pressure to drop gestation crates when Wisconsin resident Gina Steussy started a Change.org petition asking Johnsonville Sausage CEO Ralph Stayer to stop sourcing pork products from suppliers that confine breeding pigs to cages that restrict their ability to turn around during the 4-month period of their pregnancy. The petition was supported by The Humane League and acquired over 73,000 signatures, gaining wide public attention. Two months later, Johnsonville Foods posted on its website, “It is our moral and ethical obligation to ensure our animals are treated humanely at all times. As part of our active pursuit of enhanced handling practices, we will be working with our pork suppliers to transition from traditional gestation stall housing, to alternative pregnant sow housing, by 2025.”[11]
With this decision, Johnsonville joined many other American pork purchasers such as Oscar Mayer, Jimmy Dean, McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, and Denny's in pledging to phase out gestation crates.[12]
Notes
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Johnsonville Sausage. |
- ↑ "Company Overview of Johnsonville Sausage LLC" Bloomberg Businessweek.
- ↑ "The Pork Industry at a Glance" (PDF). National Pork Board.
- ↑ " Bratwurst brand claims bragging rights as nation's top sausage" Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, August 21, 2005. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
- ↑
- ↑ http://www.johnsonville.com/about.html
- ↑ Dickinson, Hilary. "Johnsonville grillers included in Kenosha Beef recall". BizTimes.com - Milwaukee business news. BizTimes Media LLC. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ↑ "Recall alert: Johnsonville Grillers sausage patties recalled after metal found". palmbeachpost.com. The Palm Beach Post. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ↑ "Johnsonville recalls 89,000 pounds of pork sausage over possible contamination". chicagotribune.com. The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- ↑ http://www.johnsonville.com/products.html
- ↑ "The Pork Industry at a Glance" (PDF). National Pork Board.
- ↑ "Johnsonville Animal Welfare". Johnsonville Foods.
- ↑ "Oscar Mayer Sets Timeline for Eliminating Controversial Pig Cages from Pork Supply Chain". The Humane Society of the United States.