Headquartered in Fall River, Massachusetts, new NERC Sustaining Member 
Blount Fine Foods is a fifth generation family owned business whose product lines include “restaurant-quality, single-serve grab-n-go fresh soups and entrées at retail, as well as entrées, side dishes, and a full line of mac & cheese for retail hot bars and restaurants,” according to the company’s website.
While the company was officially incorporated in Rhode Island in 1946, it “has roots that stretch back much further — when 18-year-old Eddie Blount started an oyster harvesting business in 1880,” according to a recent EastBay RI interview with current president and CEO Todd Blount.
Blount Fine Foods’ foray into supplying hot, ready-to-go soups to supermarkets was so successful that the company focused its growth on ready-to-serve food products. “We’ve helped pioneer the fresh, prepared foods at the deli, where we all like to get a last-minute dinner idea on the way home,” Todd Blount told EastBay RI. “Our goal is that we want to have the whole category and help the customer have all kinds of options for that category.”
An important part of the company’s food ethos is its responsible sourcing of ingredients for its recipes. “For example,” its website states, “our organic produce and meat come from suppliers who have earned recognized organic certifications, and our seafood ingredients come from responsible fisheries and farms that work to sustain fish/shellfish populations and ecosystems. We also seek to buy as local as is practical.”
The company’s website also outlines a number of sustainability commitments. In addition to “working with suppliers who employ sustainable land-use and ecosystem management practices,” the company describes the following sustainability initiatives:
- Reduction of energy usage, in large part thanks to its own solar energy system
- Through its Reduce, Reuse and Recycle program, reductions in emissions and environmental impacts
- Removal of biological oxygen demand (BOD) from wastewater effluent streams
- The use of food-to-energy technology for food waste
Blount also highlights their work to spread sustainable practices. We have a policy of sharing the technology of our proven successes with our customers, vendors, and our other food industry partners, to maximize our collective benefit to the environment.
According to the EastBay RI article, Blount Fine Foods “donate(s) as much as 1 million pounds of food each year, which increased significantly in light of the lockdowns and food shortages of last year.” The company also donates “approximately two percent of our profits each year in the form of products and funds to a diverse group of local non-profits”.
It’s a well-known fact in sustainability circles that food companies are forming concrete solutions to such issues as packaging and food waste, to name but two. NERC welcomes Blount Fine Foods as its newest Sustaining Advisory Member, and looks forward to collaborating on effective solutions for the food industry.