SACRAMENTO – Rä Foods LLC Wild About Sprouts, a Sacramento based fresh sprouts produce company, is excited to announce the addition of three professionals to our team in the new facility in Sacramento, Calif.
“Wild About Sprouts is on a mission to reach consumers across the country with fresh, living, safe, healthy, flavorful sprouts,” said Jeff Sholl, Owner, Wild About Sprouts. “In order to do this, we needed to expand our operations and hire experts for key positions to help us meet the increasing demand we are experiencing.”
Antonio Ortiz joins Wild About Sprouts as the Director of Operations. In a career spanning over 20 years, Ortiz is an accomplished operational management professional and leader and most recently served as General Manager for Superior Farms in Dixon, Calif. There, he presided over a large-scale operation, managed a diverse team, and consistently met all performance and productivity expectations. Prior to that, Ortiz was Facilities Manager at North Shore Greenhouses, Director of Operations at McKay Transcold, Operations Manager at Railex LLC, and Plant Manager at Cotterman Co. Throughout his career, Ortiz has developed and refined his skills in all areas of operational and facilities management, and has spearheaded a wealth of successful initiatives.
Chelsea Deusenberry joins Wild About Sprouts as Continuous Improvement and Quality Manager. She comes to Wild About Sprouts with 11 years’ experience in quality control, with experience in automation and robotics and GFSI audit experience for both FSIS and FDA production plants. In addition, she performed continuous gap analyses to determine areas of improvement in operational efficiencies and internal processes as well as tracking and analyzing product specifications, customer quality concerns and vendor complaints. Deusenberry is working to enhance our food safety programs and processes. Additionally, she is participating in automation and increasing capacity initiatives.
Jacqueline Ponciano joins Wild About Sprouts as Operations and Safety Coordinator and has quickly been promoted to Logistics Manager. Ponciano will focus on compliance, training and project management. Ponciano has a background in material requirements planning, vendor relationships and inventory management. She is working to further develop our transportation and customer service departments, focusing on order fulfilment and on time deliveries.
Wild About Sprouts are different from traditional sprouts and are grown in individual 3 ounce containers using a patented Cold Grown® process (PAT No. 10015936) that results in the safest sprouts available. The patented Cold Grown® process prevents the growth of pathogens and eliminates handling that could introduce contaminants and promote spoilage. Wild About Sprouts seeds are planted directly in retail packages and from planting to the plate, the sprouts remain alive and completely untouched until harvested by consumers in their homes. As an additional safety step, final product testing occurs on every shipment.
This specially developed process is world class in food safety and Antonio, Chelsea and Jacky have quickly added value in all areas of the operation.
About Rä Foods
Rä Foods LLC, located in Southlake, TX, is the parent company of Wild About Sprouts and Wild About Bread. At Rä Foods, healthful eating is made delicious, nutritious and simple. Whether you want a delicious homemade, fresh baked bread or a refreshingly different, flavorful, healthful alternative to lettuce, Rä Foods has options that will add variety and wholesome goodness to all eating occasions.
