Giraffe Food & Beverage
Established in 1997, Giraffe Food & Beverage is a family-owned and operated manufacturing company in Mississauga, specializing in the creation and production of delicious products for the Retail and Foodservice industry.
A strong emphasis on innovation sets them apart from their competition. They have already established themselves as industry leaders in Private Label for mid-sized restaurant chains, supermarkets and foodservice distributors. The company holds an SQF Tier 2 Certification for GFSI Compliance with our fully verified Food Safety Program.
In order to accommodate restaurants and food-service companies of all sizes, Giraffe packs into high-barrier pouches as well as jugs, pails, drums and totes from as small as 5mL to as large as almost 2L.
Giraffe Foods is also an approved supplier to all major Canadian and U.S. Foodservice distributors, enjoying fundamental partnerships with valued customers such as Sysco, U.S. Foodservice, Gordon Food Service (GFS), Performance Food Group, Vistar, Edward Don & Company and many others. The company is also proud to support local distributors in each Canadian province and American state.
At Giraffe Foods, they specialize in creating customized options for each individual private label requirement. From clean label to extended shelf life, they make a promise to answer all your needs. With hot wing sauces, barbecue and global flavors as well as creamy dips, dressings, marinades and even drink mixes, they continue to develop and manufacture a wide variety of options for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice operators.
With Giraffe’s low minimum order requirement of 300-500 gallons (2000 L), they are able to create LTO and test market runs before moving ahead to full production.
There are four main sauces promoted: hot pepper – with aged cayenne, authentic Buffalo wing, reduced sodium hot sauce, Thai sriracha, taco and burrito, suicide hot and habanero lime. They also have a wide assortment of dips and salad dressings and drink concentrates including juices, energy drinks, slushies and juice blends.
Your secret recipes are time-consuming to make in-house and often times have variable results. You can trust the folks at Giraffe Foods to scale up and commercialize your recipe and keep it a secret so no one knows what makes your sauce so special. Whether you need a foodservice product or retail, they guarantee your satisfaction every time. Let their team of qualified Food Scientist create delicious recipes to suit your needs using ingredients customized to your needs.
Giraffe maintains a strong presence in the U.S. Eastern Seaboard as well as Eastern Canada with bag-in-box juices and sodas, jugged and pouched sauces and dips and cups for foodservice and retail. Currently, the company beverage segment represents about 40 per cent of the company business, producing juices and beverages for restaurant chains, as well as smoothies, sodas, soft drinks — even energy drinks and bar mixes.
The sauce and dip category represents about 60 per cent of the sales and is continuously growing as a result of product line extensions and increased packaging options. The company’s facility is equipped with the state-of-the-art production technology that allows Giraffe Foods to produce 50,000 litres of sauce and beverage concentrates on a daily basis. With this capacity, Giraffe Foods supplies sauce to major restaurant chains and retail supermarkets.
Studies show that consumers are educating themselves in the food and nutrition area more than ever before and are turning to retailers and restaurants to meet their specific needs and requests in a rapidly changing environment. The team at Giraffe know that what’s “hot” today might be “not” tomorrow, so responding to trends and differentiating them from short-lived fads is where Giraffe Foods steps in. For instance, recognizing the trend for gluten-free products is real and growing. Giraffe has created a full line of sauces that are made without using any ingredients containing gluten, such as wheat, barley, oats and others.
Giraffe Foods holds several important food industry certifications. The company received HACCP certification, an internationally recognized system used to enhance food safety throughout food chains, aiming to prevent, reduce or eliminate potential food safety hazards. Giraffe Foods also holds a Site License with Health Canada in the Natural Health Product Directorate, enabling the company to manufacture fortified products such as energy drinks. Giraffe Foods also holds C–TPAT, Tier 2 status, contributing to safeguarding the world’s most vibrant trade from the threats of terrorism and protecting the economic health of the U.S. and its trade neighbors.
Giraffe Foods is also a member of various food organizations, such as Institute of Food Technologists which contributes to the advancements and critical developments in the field of food science; and Research Chefs Association, a leading community of pioneers in the food research and development — the discipline of Culinology®, blending culinary arts and the science of food.
Giraffe Foods supplies quality beverages, and delicious hot sauce, barbeque, Thai chili, Teriyaki and many other sauces across North American markets. The market for Giraffe Foods’ sauce burns red hot, and there are no signs of slowing down for this family business that turned Ontario into one of the hottest hot sauce manufacturing spots in North America.
