Skip to main content
Advantive

What do Costco, Walmart, Trader Joe’s and McDonald’s require of their food suppliers?

By Grace Barton Updated

It might be surprising to find out that corporate food safety standards often far surpass what is required by the government (see more about the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act below). With an increasing public awareness of foodborne illnesses and product recalls, supermarkets and restaurants are being driven to beef up their food safety requirements for suppliers. Food manufacturers eager to keep customers happy and expand into new markets are constantly working to comply with the demands of their buyers in a cost-effective way.

Check out the links below to peek at what it takes to sell to retailers like Costco, Walmart, Trader Joe’s and McDonald’s. Peterson Farms and Happy Apples are two companies who have used ParityFactory to help them build and maintain successful supplier relationships with McDonald’s and Walmart.

Making the operational changes necessary to follow these guidelines, and prove compliance, can be challenging. ParityFactory users can utilize their Tracing Suite reports as a sales tool to demonstrate the quality of their materials control to prospective buyers, and to remain in the good graces of their food safety conscious customers. Give us a call to see the Tracing Suite in action and find out how it could help you keep up with the growing demands of food safety.

**Walmart
**“We strive relentlessly to provide safe, affordable, quality foods in our retail operations. As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we go further than many U.S. and Puerto Rico retailers in requiring that harmonized, leading-edge food safety standards be adopted throughout the entire food production chain.”

**Costco
**“The purpose of a food safety audit is to gather current information about the food safety status of existing and potential entities/suppliers. This information is shared with the Costco Food Safety Group and the Costco Produce Buying Staff. The Costco Food Safety Group will use this audit to determine what areas, if any, are in need of improvement to meet the Costco Produce Food Safety criteria. The Costco Produce Buying Staff will use the information as an aid to assist them in making purchases.”

**McDonald’s
**“McDonald’s commitment to sourcing the highest quality food products for our restaurants starts with suppliers – one of the critical legs of the three-legged stool. That means suppliers’ commitment to food safety and quality must remain strong to ensure McDonald’s restaurants can consistently deliver safe, high-quality, great tasting products to more than 70 million customers every day.”

**Trader Joe’s
**“We buy only products that are produced in FDA or USDA licensed and approved commercial manufacturing facilities that possess a variety of food safety certifications, including GMP and HACCP.”

“The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is transforming the nation’s food safety system by shifting the focus from responding to foodborne illness to preventing it. Congress enacted FSMA in response to dramatic changes in the global food system and in our understanding of foodborne illness and its consequences, including the realization that preventable foodborne illness is both a significant public health problem and a threat to the economic well-being of the food system.”

FDA Food Safety Modernization Act Overview

Grace Barton

Marketing Specialist

About the Author Latest Posts

Grace Barton is a digital marketing and competitive intelligence professional who crafts strategic narratives by bridging marketing insights with analytical expertise. At Advantive, she creates engaging, data-driven content tailored to the distribution, manufacturing, packaging, and quality industries. Her goal is to deliver impactful messaging that drives engagement and growth based on specific gap closure needs, whether responding to sales organization requirements, pinpointing gaps in content, or meeting immediate market trends.
She thrives on transforming competitive intelligence into actionable insights for the sales organization. Grace manages Advantive’s competitive intelligence platform, Klue, to equip the sales team with the battlecards and market data they need to stay ahead of competitors. Since launch, she’s built 28+ battlecards across four lines of business, ensuring the GTM strategy stays sharp.
Grace has a passion for leveraging market insights with storytelling to guide strategic decision-making, empower sales organizations, and nurture organizational growth.

Areas of Expertise: Digital Marketing, Competitive Intelligence, Strategic Narratives, Marketing Insights, Analytical Expertise

LinkedIn

Editorial standards

Fact-checking & editorial guidelines

Every article on advantive.com is written and reviewed against an internal accuracy standard before publication. Here's what that means in practice.

  • Product claims are verified by the brand team that owns the platform.

    When an article references InfinityQS, WinSPC, PQ Systems, Pinpoint, ParityFactory, ProPlanner, KiwiPlan, DDI System, VeraCore, or any of Advantive's other specialty platforms, the relevant product team checks technical statements about features, deployment, and current capability before the article goes live.

  • External statistics cite their source inline.

    When an article references industry survey results, regulatory benchmarks, or third-party research, the source is linked at the point of citation. Statements without an inline source link are first-party observations drawn from Advantive's product teams or customer base.

  • Publication and revision dates stay visible.

    The original publication date and the most recent revision date are both shown on every article. Topics that change quickly — AI capabilities, regulatory rules, product roadmaps — are revisited on a tighter cadence than evergreen reference content.

  • Corrections are issued openly.

    If a factual error is reported, the article is updated, the revision date advances, and material corrections are noted at the bottom of the article so readers can see what changed and when.

Found something wrong, or have a citation to add? Get in touch with the editorial team and we'll review it.

Subject-matter review

Reviewed by subject-matter experts

Advantive is a portfolio of 14+ specialty software platforms — each one built and maintained by a product team that has spent years inside a specific manufacturing or distribution discipline. Articles in technical channels are reviewed by the relevant team before publication.

  • Quality & SPC content

    Reviewed by the InfinityQS, WinSPC, and PQ Systems product teams — the platforms behind statistical process control, capability analysis, and gage management deployments across food, automotive, pharma, and CPG manufacturers.

  • Manufacturing operations & MES content

    Reviewed by the PINpoint, ProPlanner, ParityFactory, and VIA Information Tools teams, whose platforms run production scheduling, traceability, and shop-floor execution for discrete, automotive, and food-and-beverage manufacturers.

  • Packaging & converter content

    Reviewed by the KiwiPlan, Abaca, and AdvantZware teams, who build software specifically for corrugated, folding-carton, and packaging-converter operations.

  • Distribution, ERP & B2B commerce content

    Reviewed by the DDI System (inFORM ERP), Distribution One, VeraCore, Pepperi, and Commerce Vision teams, whose platforms run wholesale ERP, fulfillment, field sales, and B2B portals for specialty distributors and 3PLs.

Are you a practitioner with domain expertise to contribute? Get in touch — we accept guest contributions from operators in the industries we serve.