Who’s Minding The Store ?? Food Safety at Costco Seattle University School of Law April 11 12, 2008  2008 Costco Wholesale Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Costco’s Quality Assurance & Food Safety Mission Statement “Promote continuous improvement in product quality, and food safety systems, for the benefit of our members and vendors” “Prevention is much easier than any of the alternatives”  2008 Costco Wholesale Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Food Safety at Costco Food Safety Training Food Safety Operations Quality Assurance Food Safety Audits We are an item based business  2008 Costco Wholesale Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Food Safety Training Global Cultural Approach Costco/NEHA/NSF/ANSI Approved 100% in house training Costco is used as a training site for state health inspector training in 4 states. Provides us with a Food Safety staff of about 140,000 employees that get it !!! Top Down Support  2008 Costco Wholesale Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Food Safety Operations Things to Think About At the Costco Warehouse: –Sanitation, SSOP'S/HACCP at Retail ??? At the Costco Warehouse and Production Plants: –USDA, FDA, EPA, CPSC, OSHA, State, County, City = Minimum Guidelines Costco Expectations---Above & Beyond Buying = Prevention Through Specifications- Recalls---Always protect the member !!!! Quickly –Member Notification--Who? Why?  2008 Costco Wholesale Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Quality Assurance at Costco Specifications----What are they??? Expectations Inspect What You Expect Testing--Check--Check--&--Check Again Share Information Standard of Care? Intervention Strategies?  2008 Costco Wholesale Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Costco Auditing Programs  Code of Conduct/Social Accountability (domestic and foreign).  Food Safety (domestic and foreign).  Food Security / Bio-Security (domestic and foreign).  Animal Welfare (domestic and foreign).  Factory Evaluations—Good Manufacturing Practices/Best Practices (domestic and foreign ).  2008 Costco Wholesale Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Food Safety Audits 5000 food safety audits a year HACCP--every facility !! Costco Requirement Specifications-Standards-Specifications International Information Exchange Standard of Care?---Raise the Standard –test & hold –x-ray, microbial methods---testing  2008 Costco Wholesale Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Delighting Our Members A Costco member should always leave our building delighted with their shopping experience. Food safety efforts should be invisible to our members!!!!  2008 Costco Wholesale Corp. All Rights Reserved.

COSTCO’S CODE OF ETHICS  Obey the Law  Take care of our members  Take care of our employees  Respect our vendors  Reward our shareholders  2008 Costco Wholesale Corp. All Rights Reserved.