A Tour of Crescent Foods
While in Chicago, a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to meet with our friends at Crescent Foods
and take a tour of their processing facility. I will admit, I was very nervous about this as I had never seen (or wanted to see) what comes before the perfectly packaged Crescent Chicken and Beef.
My First Meeting With Crescent Foods
I was first introduced to Crescent Foods several years ago, when I began developing recipes and food photography for them. We were living in Seattle and had limited access to antibiotic free, halal, vegetarian-fed chicken and grass-fed beef when head of marketing, Amna, asked to have a meeting.
We met while I was in New Jersey for Hijab Fest. We had a great dinner meeting with my mom, Hala, and Asma Khan (a former Crescent Foods employee) and I was so impressed with how passionately and eloquently Asma and Amna spoke about Crescent Foods and the founder, Mr. Adam.
I headed back to Seattle and started developing recipes immediately. The first thing I noticed about Crescent Foods Chicken, was the packaging. I had never before had a halal product that was so nicely packaged! Once we began to eat it, I noticed there was no sulfuric flavor you sometimes get with chicken. There was also no trace of blood or other weird things >_<
The Recipes
The Tour
We arrived to the Crescent Foods processing plant after a 5 hour drive from Michigan. We were so warmly greeted by the team. We met with the founder and CEO, Mr. Adam, the Business Development Director, Huthyfah Abed, Amna Haq the Marketing & Innovations Director and many more!
We settled in, with Hannah in hand, and had a Chicago style pizza from Giordanos for lunch. We then suited up and headed in for a tour (Hussein went first while I watched Hannah and then we traded off).
Upon entering, the first thing I noticed was there was absolutely NO smell. This was surprising because even some butcher shops smell so strongly. If you know the smell, you know!
It was really cool to see how everything was packaged. Take the ground chicken, a team cleaned the chicken by hand, the chicken was then moved to a grinder, then onto a conveyer and into their packages! There was nothing added. Chicken went in and ground chicken came out!
It was also really nice to see people working in a cohesive team. I was introduced to many members of the team who were happy to talk about Crescent Foods and their work. The factory workers stood for most of their day, so anti-fatigue mats are in place. Its the little things that really make a difference.
After seeing the second phase of production and meeting the team, I am even more confident in my choice to use Crescent Foods in our home. As a new mom, it is important for me to feel confident in decisions I make regarding food for Hannah. Crescent Foods provides me that confidence.
We love grass-fed beef for its healthy omega-3s, its leaner meat and great taste. When making my Beef Shawarma recipe I used Crescent Foods Angus beef.
Have you tried Crescent Foods yet? Find the nearest store here and let me know what you think!
This is a sponsored post. All opinions and content are my own. Thank you to Crescent Foods for being a long time supporter of my blog!
Xoxo,
