Harvesting

• Dole harvests lettuce under the strict supervision of Good Agriculture Practices (GAP).
• Dole employees wear hairnets, use clean rubber gloves and sanitize their cutting knives several times a day.
• Practices of chewing gum or smoking are strictly prohibited.

Facilities

• Dole facilities are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized every day – not all salad companies can make that claim.
• Every Dole production room is kept at a cool 36° to ensure that our salad products are kept clean, safe and fresh.
• Dole’s salad plants operate under a system called HACCP, or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points program. Developed by NASA to prevent astronauts from contracting food-borne illness while in space, the HACCP program is a standard of safety at all of our salad facilities.

Cleaning Process

• Dole lettuce is inspected for quality and safety as soon as it enters our plants.
• Our lettuce undergoes a Dole-pioneered triple-wash cleaning process. This three-step process is now an industry standard.
• Dole lettuce is dried, or “salad spun” using a gentle centrifuge dryer before its ready for packaging.

Packaging

• Dole adds no chemical additives to our lettuce, nor do we use preservatives in the washing process.
• DOLE packaged salad bags are specially designed to keep the product safe and fresh.
• Each DOLE packaged salad includes its own Best-If-Used-By date so consumers know they are purchasing the freshest product possible.