SMITHFIELD, Va., March 28, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Smithfield Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Smithfield Foods, Inc., announced today a donation of $50,000 to the Foundation for Meat and Poultry Research and Education, a non-profit research, education, and information foundation established to identify strategies that enable the meat and poultry industry to produce better, safer products, and to operate more efficiently.

“We are so pleased that Smithfield Foods has, once again, decided to generously support our core research values to enable the meat and poultry industry to produce the highest quality and safest products possible,” said Susan Backus, president, Foundation for Meat and Poultry Research and Education. “With cooperative support from our industry partners like Smithfield, we will continue to conduct valuable research to improve our nation’s meat and poultry supply.”

The Foundation’s Research Advisory Committee has identified several key research priorities for 2019. These priorities include projects that address food safety, product quality, animal welfare and worker safety, among others. All research findings from current and prior years are available online at https://meatpoultryfoundation.org/researches.

“The Foundation for Meat and Poultry Research and Education and Smithfield Foods share a common goal of providing safe and high-quality products for customers,” said Keira Lombardo, executive vice president of corporate affairs and compliance for Smithfield Foods and president of the Smithfield Foundation. “We are happy to collaborate with the Foundation and help further their important research initiatives, enabling us to fulfill our mission to produce ‘Good food. Responsibly®.’”

About Smithfield Foods
Smithfield Foods is a $15 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield®, Eckrich®, Nathan’s Famous®, Farmland®, Armour®, Farmer John®, Kretschmar®, John Morrell®, Cook’s®, Gwaltney®, Carando®, Margherita®, Curly’s®, Healthy Ones®, Morliny®, Krakus®, and Berlinki®. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com, and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.  

Foundation for Meat & Poultry Research boilerplate
The Foundation for Meat and Poultry Research and Education is a non-profit organization organized as a 501 (c) (3) organization of the Internal Revenue Code. The Foundation’s purpose for more than 70 years is to promote research, education and scientific advances in the meat and poultry processing and related industries. Since the Foundation launched its Food Safety Initiative in 1999, more than $9.6 million in grants have been awarded.