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Great quality doesn’t come easy. It takes a company-wide commitment. Years ago, Frontier decided to become the quality leader in the natural food industry. Today you can't work at Frontier without being conscious of quality -- it's woven into every part of the business. If you're a new employee in a packaging area, you'll learn your first day that part of your job is to stop production and call Quality Assurance if you spot a potential problem. If you're a financial manager, you know that lowering product quality is not an acceptable cost-cutting measure. If you're in sales and marketing, you depend on Frontier's ability to consistently deliver superior quality at competitive prices. There are no secrets or gimmicks to Frontier quality. Just hard work and commitment.
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Frontier actively recruits and develops quality organic growers. For over a decade, we have been one of the largest buyers of organic herbs in the United States. We visit growers all over the world to observe and discuss the growing and harvesting of the herbs and spices we buy. Over the years, we have built relationships with quality-conscious suppliers who consistently provide the best of a year's crop and respect our standards-including no irradiated products. Thorough inspection of a pre-shipment sample is performed on each product Frontier buys. Using our in-house lab as well as independent labs, we run tests for flavor, color, aroma, moisture, mesh size, volatile oil content, mold and bacteria count. Only 40% of the samples we test are approved and released for production.
Once herbs and spices arrive at Frontier, every aspect of their handling is done with quality in mind. We have climate controlled storage (70 degrees Fahrenheit and 60% relative humidity) to preserve freshness and volatile plant constituents. We were the first in the herb and spice industry to use carbon dioxide fumigation -- a safe, effective alternative to chemical fumigation agents such as methyl-bromide (which has recently been identified as a serious ozone threat as well). Strict sanitation rules are enforced through regular inspections by Quality Assurance. Product handling, processing and packaging systems are all set up to maximize the quality of the final product. Exposure to moisture and heat is minimized at all times. Much of our grinding is done cryogenically at temperatures below -20 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent the loss of quality which may result from the heat of grinding. Our herbs and spices are packaged in materials which ensure the optimum quality of a product -- foil laminate pouches, glass bottles, or plastic bags double-bagged in paper.
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We know we're maintaining quality at Frontier because we check it every step of the way. Our Quality Assurance team monitors everything from the temperature in the warehouse to samples of each batch of seasoning blend. A sophisticated system of computerized inventory allows any herb or spice, even a minor ingredient in a blend, to be instantly located or traced back to its origin. If questions are raised about the quality of an herb or spice, the whole lot can be quickly located and checked.
Ravin Donald, Ph.D. Vice President of Quality Assurance and Research and Development
Denys Charles, Ph.D. Director of Research
Plus a staff of highly trained Technicians.
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 Frontier sources the highest quality botanical raw materials from all over the world, including herbs, spices, essential oils, vanilla beans and tea. But there is more to it than quality. We also consider the social and environmental impact of all our purchases. Our first choice is always organic. We offer support to the communities that grow our botanicals, and help strengthen economies by buying from many areas where economic development is poor, including Peru, Mexico, Russia, Africa and Native Indian communities. We send our buyers around the globe to develop personal relationships with growers and organic growing communities.
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