Garrett McBride [00:00:09]:
Hey there. Welcome to get the scoop with Smirk’s podcast where bulk ingredient conversation happens. We’re sharing our knowledge and expertise as bulk ingredient importers, tapping into the latest trends we are seeing and commenting on what that means for natural food businesses as they approach ingredient purchasing, product development, and marketing. You’ll hear the latest market reports, ingredient specifications, and product applications from Smirk’s in house experts, as well as origin stories from our growers and processors around the world. Listen in for the scoop on what’s happening with bulk ingredients.
Elisa Louis [00:00:49]:
Hello, and welcome to get the scoop with Smirk’s. This is episode 15, and we’re diving into a topic essential to Smirk’s mission and our partnerships, quality assurance. At Smirk’s, as a leading supplier of conventional and organic ingredients, our mission goes beyond transactions. We’re all about building trusted partnerships and delivering quality ingredient solutions. Our quality assurance or QA team is a huge part of that. They ensure that we consistently uphold high standards in quality and food safety so that our customers can feel assured that we will meet or exceed their needs. Today, I’m excited to welcome 2 people who play a key role in our QA processes. We have Tara Hettinger, our QA director, and Garrett McBride who oversees operations at Smirk’s.
Elisa Louis [00:01:36]:
They’ll help us understand what goes on behind the scenes in QA. Hello, Tara. Hello, Garrett. Welcome to the podcast. Hey, Alisa. Hey there. Alright. Well, let’s get rolling.
Elisa Louis [00:01:48]:
Tara, let’s start with you. What are some of the main goals of the QA team, and how do you make sure they align with Smirk’s broader mission and vision?
Tara Hettinger [00:01:58]:
Our goal in the QA department is to provide partnerships with not only our customers, but our suppliers as well, Alisa. Smirk’s has a very rigorous vetting process and assesses potential risks not only for us, but our customers that are purchasing products from us. We require and analyze between 30 40 quality and food safety documents from our suppliers during the vetting process. We are very transparent with our suppliers and what we are looking for and what we need, and the same mentality is then passed on to our customers. One of our goals is to be quick to respond to our customers’ needs in an efficient and effective manner. We do not want our customers waiting on us for questions to be answered or documents to be sent. They usually need this information either to move on with their production or may even be in the midst of an annual audit, which we all know is stressful. We aim to be very detailed and organized upfront when vetting our suppliers to help us achieve this goal with our customers.
Tara Hettinger [00:02:59]:
Smirk’s currently manages over 60,000 supplier documents in our system, which believe me is not an easy task to do. I have 2 phenomenal girls, Danielle and Kelsey, in our QA department that help manage and take care of these. They are integral to this department at Smirk’s being successful.
Garrett McBride [00:03:20]:
Yeah. 60,000 documents. That is bananas. Adding to that, the Smirks QA team goes above and beyond by thoroughly vetting all of our suppliers. We review every quality document looking for orange or red flags. When possible, we’ll make on-site visits to our suppliers. That’s what I love to do. Not only verifying that everything checks out on paper, but building the relationships and seeing their facilities firsthand, making sure that they’re doing everything that they say they’re doing all the time.
Elisa Louis [00:03:48]:
That’s an interesting point, Gary. You’ve traveled extensively for Smirk’s meeting suppliers and inspecting their facilities. Could you share a little bit about your approach on these visits and what are you typically looking for?
Garrett McBride [00:03:59]:
Yeah, absolutely. This is my favorite thing to do. I absolutely love this. And and a big part of the reason I joined the Smirk’s team, during these visits, my goal is to manage and and mitigate risk for Smirk’s and for our customers and to build and nurture the strong partnerships with our suppliers. Ultimately, you know, I serve as the food safety and quality assurance boogeyman because what I observe can make or break supplier’s future in doing business with Smirk’s and can make or break Smirk’s future with our customers because everybody needs high quality food safe ingredients. While on-site, I scrutinize anything and everything from the physical condition of their facilities to their product handling practices, pest and rodent control measures, foreign material detection systems, process documentation, and anything else we’ve identified as being a risk for a given supplier or product category. I take a trust and verify approach, and these face to face interactions make a huge difference in building a reliable partnership and allowing us to have faith in the practices of the folks that we choose to do business with.
Elisa Louis [00:05:01]:
I guess you didn’t have to dress up for Halloween, Garrett. You already hold the title of boogeyman.
Elisa Louis [00:05:06]:
But in
Elisa Louis [00:05:07]:
all seriousness, I know that those face to face on-site visits are such an important step in laying the foundation for a strong relationship with our suppliers. Now turning back to Tara. Smart’s customers and suppliers work with you daily, Tara. I know. However, they’ve never really gotten to know me, perhaps, the person behind the emails and the phone calls. Could you tell us a little bit about your professional background?
Tara Hettinger [00:05:33]:
Sure, Lisa. In my younger years, my mom, she was a manager in the food service industry, and I decided at that point as a teenager to follow in her footsteps and go into restaurant management as well. Spent a couple years at our junior college here in Sterling, Colorado, and then ended up transferring to UNLV in Las Vegas. As moved back to Colorado after Las Vegas and as things evolve in life, I realized the city life just wasn’t for me, and and my husband and I started dating. I lived in Denver at the time, and he lived in our small town of Moreno where I grew up. And after a few months of dating, I made the decision to move back to Moreno, back to my roots. There’s not a lot of food service opportunities in in our area, so I ended up managing the quality assurance and laboratory along with all OSHA regulations at our local ethanol processing facility. I did love the work.
Tara Hettinger [00:06:32]:
It just wasn’t quite what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I ended up making the move to the food ingredient manufacturing world. I worked here in Fort Morgan at a sugar beet processing facility as an assistant chemist in managing the day to day operations and a millet cleaning processing plant as a food safety quality assurance manager along with production scheduler. At the millet facility, that’s where I worked with Donnie and the SMIRCs team. Over the years, SMIRCs was very intriguing in regards to all of the different ingredients, origins, and just the scope of business overall. So one day, I gave Jam Donnie a phone call, and that was right before 4th July. Had a conversation with him, and as we all know, the rest is history. I I’m on my 5th year working with Smirks at this point.
Elisa Louis [00:07:22]:
That’s awesome. Really fun to hear your background, Tara. I mean, you’ve gone from food service to food safety. That’s quite a trip. So can you tell us a little bit too? I I love I think all of our listeners here would kinda love to hear what you do outside of work because it’s pretty cool.
Tara Hettinger [00:07:41]:
Sure. We live out in the middle of nowhere, out in the country on 36 acres. So as you can imagine, just the upkeep alone on that, it keeps us very busy throughout the entire year. But why not make ourselves even busier? Right? My parents, along with my husband and myself, have about 30 head of sheep, and we raise club lamps. And these are raised for kids that are involved in showing either through 4 h or FFA. We strongly believe in our youth, and as we always say, we’re helping raise phenomenal kids through these animals. My husband and I volunteer countless hours during the year for our annual county fair, which is always in August, usually the 1st full week, where these kids get to show off their hard work they put into their projects. So they show them and then they they, in turn, get to sell them for money, which helps with their projects on the following year.
Tara Hettinger [00:08:37]:
I’m also an avid gardener of both flowers and vegetables. Both my parents are gardeners. My dad was a farmer pretty much his entire life, and he’s now has a crazy hobby of growing giant pumpkins with his personal record being £941.
Elisa Louis [00:08:56]:
He’s Pretty sad. He’s
Tara Hettinger [00:08:57]:
yeah. He’s chasing that 1,000 pounder
Elisa Louis [00:09:00]:
and Unbelievable.
Tara Hettinger [00:09:02]:
Yeah. He grows everything outside, so the elements of the weather dictate a lot for him. So it’s frustrating, but rewarding when he gets those big ones.
Elisa Louis [00:09:12]:
For sure.
Tara Hettinger [00:09:14]:
Yeah. So and then my mom’s love to grow beautiful flowers. She has her own landscaping business after she left the food industry sector. Definitely piqued my interest years ago to kinda grow things and see what what I could do with them. So this, obviously, it takes up an enormous amount of time throughout the summer, but it truly is my stress reliever. And then in, other spare time I have, I love making candy. Halloween, it’s my favorite holiday, and and I love making homemade caramel apples for all the kids at work. And in my personal life, this year, I made 187 of them to I either sold them, gave them away for Halloween, and so that was a daunting task, but super fun.
Elisa Louis [00:10:03]:
Sounds like a labor of love.
Tara Hettinger [00:10:06]:
Yeah. It really is. I know. Yeah. Exactly. So I love debate that my passion really is on the candy side. If I ever happen to win the lottery, which we all know the chances of that happening, I would own my own candy making business. So that would that’s really in my foot keeps me crazy busy and going nonstop.
Tara Hettinger [00:10:26]:
That’s so cool.
Elisa Louis [00:10:28]:
It’s so fun to hear what people would do if they didn’t have to work another day in their life. I mean and your idea sounds pretty sweet, I gotta say. Sorry I couldn’t help myself. But, I know. I just envisioned that this would be like the most delicious and food safe candy company that I you could ever imagine. Right? Yeah. But, it’s fun to talk about that stuff. I might have told you that if I won the lottery, I’d like to work in a winery tasting room, pouring wine and chatting about wine with wine lovers all day long.
Elisa Louis [00:11:02]:
You know, it’s just so much fun to have that lottery dream.
Tara Hettinger [00:11:06]:
That wouldn’t be a bad gig either, Alisa.
Elisa Louis [00:11:08]:
Right? I know you like wine. Oh, yes. But, anyways, back to you. You’ve told me QA can be a boring topic, but, clearly, there’s a lot more to it. What drives you to do this work, and what are some of the challenges you face?
Tara Hettinger [00:11:23]:
I do joke that QA is boring. However, it it’s also very rewarding. It’s really about mitigating risk and doing our best to protect the people when these products proceed downstream to consumers. Mitigating risk, it’s really the name of the game, but what makes it challenging is even when the best practices and processes are in place, unexpected issues do arise. That’s why we are diligent in our approval process and very organized when we do day to day. Our goal is when these situations arise, we can quickly address them for all parties involved and get through whatever we’re dealing with at that point in time.
Elisa Louis [00:12:03]:
Alright. Well, thanks for that. And let’s, shift gears. Garrett, transparency is an important value here at Smirk’s. How does this set us apart?
Garrett McBride [00:12:14]:
Yeah. You nailed it. Transparency has been a value of Smirk’s from day 1. As a former Smirk’s customer for the better part of a decade and tell you how much I appreciated that and appreciate it now from this side of the ball. We openly share all the detailed information about our suppliers, including extensive quality documents so that our customers know exactly what they’re getting. No black box, no games, no funny business. You know what we know and we’re all better for it. This helps to build trust, strengthens our partnerships, which is what we all want out of this business in this world.
Garrett McBride [00:12:48]:
Most others in this industry tend to keep their information inside that locked black box and getting from customer view. And we feel it’s beneficial as we develop our partnerships that were completely forthcoming, and that strategy has paid off as a key competitive differentiator.
Elisa Louis [00:13:06]:
The first merge sources and supplies and ingredient, it definitely undergoes a rigorous vetting process that we’ve kinda chatted about here. But can you walk us through what that process entails?
Garrett McBride [00:13:17]:
Yes. Certainly. East Supplier goes through a multistep vetting process, which is quite extensive. It often includes an on-site facility visit to verify their standards, their facility, their practices, etcetera. We don’t just take documents at face value. We review every piece of paperwork thoroughly to make sure that they say they’re doing everything right. And then when possible, we actually lay eyes on what they’re doing to verify that they’re doing it in real life. We’re sourcing 30 items from 180 suppliers across 27 countries.
Garrett McBride [00:13:52]:
It’s a lot of work, but it ensures that we maintain the high quality standards that our customers rely on.
Elisa Louis [00:13:59]:
Garrett, thanks for sharing those stats. The sheer number of different items and suppliers and origins is truly mind blowing. Now, Tara, back to you.
Garrett McBride [00:14:08]:
It’s a huge job.
Elisa Louis [00:14:09]:
Yeah. Right?
Garrett McBride [00:14:10]:
24 hours.
Elisa Louis [00:14:12]:
It’s insane. I mean, when I think about that’s what we’re doing all day every day, it just really astounds me.
Garrett McBride [00:14:23]:
Yeah. Tara and her team are phenomenal. They do a killer job staying on top of this, managing ongoing. It’s an amazing amount of work, and it gets done to top.
Tara Hettinger [00:14:33]:
Appreciate that.
Elisa Louis [00:14:35]:
Alright. Now back to Tara. Alright. You’re on the hot seat again. I like learning about what a day in the life looks like. So what does the Smirk’s QA team do on a daily basis to support our customers?
Tara Hettinger [00:14:50]:
Well, obviously, every day looks a bit different, but we’re continually approving certificate of analysis on a per lot basis of product that we receive. We’re comparing these COAs to the spec sheets, making sure all the testing is within the spec limitations. We check the COA against labels that’s put on product. We make sure that the item description matches and that the lot numbers, production dates are within range. And this is just to name a few of the items that we’re looking at on labels and certificate of analysis. We’re very diligent and detailed with this process. Danielle approves our import COAs and label templates, and and Kelsey does our domestic COA and label templates. At any given time, we’re answering numerous questions, filling out questionnaires, sending supplier documents to various customers.
Tara Hettinger [00:15:43]:
We’re vetting new suppliers or ingredients for approved suppliers along with just the upkeep of the Smurfs organic, kosher, fair trade, and the regenerative organic certifications that we hold here at Smirk’s. On a continuous basis, we’re requesting new up to date docs from suppliers that either have hard expiry dates or statements that are dated past a year. This is just a brief glimpse as it takes great time, coordination, and a detail oriented mindset to do this daily. Making all of it come together in a smooth and efficient manner, It’s a challenge at times, but we pride ourselves on doing this well.
Elisa Louis [00:16:23]:
There’s a lot going on over there. That’s for sure. And and Garrett touched on it, but I just can’t I can’t say enough about the fact that managing 60,000 documents alone just takes my breath away. So, yeah, never a dull moment in QA. So, yes, not boring. That’s for sure right
Tara Hettinger [00:16:43]:
now. It’s definitely very busy. And when we’re busy selling, we can tell we may not know exactly how much we’re selling at the time, but we definitely fill it in the QA department by the request that we’re receiving.
Elisa Louis [00:16:59]:
I can imagine. So could you give us an example of when your QA team has really gone above and beyond for a customer?
Tara Hettinger [00:17:08]:
Sure. We we recently had a customer and had a very rigorous approval process. We kinda took the all hands on deck approach to fill out the forms, send supplier documents, answer remaining questions that they had, and we were fortunately able from start to finish to get this finalized and completed and approved by the customer within just a couple of days. They had sent an email back to us, and they were very thankful for the detail oriented mindset, the document organization, and making them feel more important that they were our number one priority through that process. And as the QA department, this is exactly what we aim to do with all of our customers at any given time.
Elisa Louis [00:17:49]:
Yeah. I mean, I’d say 48 hours is just like lightning speed for a new product approval, all things considered, all the parts and pieces and people involved to go into it. So that’s awesome, Tara.
Garrett McBride [00:18:00]:
You know, it’s worth the notion too, not just the organization within Smurfs, but the organization that all of these documents and all of this information is presented to the customer and the speed with which Tara Dinell and Kelsey accomplish that is another thing that sets Smurfs apart from really anybody else in this business. I know that after years of being on the purchasing side, gigantic competitive advantage for Smurfs is huge for our customers. It’s just a a great value add from this team.
Tara Hettinger [00:18:29]:
Yeah. We really try and and provide everything upfront to our customers. So, hopefully, they have it all in their hands immediately and don’t have to come back to us with further questions. It just makes their life easier
Elisa Louis [00:18:40]:
as well. Right on. Well, Garrett, let’s talk a a little bit about a different topic because I think this could be helpful for some customers that are always thinking about bringing on new products. If you were advising one of our customers about launching a new food product, what advice would you give them regarding quality and food safety?
Garrett McBride [00:19:02]:
Sure. I’ve definitely been there before. I think the most important thing is to be patient and diligent with your exploration. There are so many options out there for every product category across broad spectrum of cost and quality variables. It’s so important to find the right fit for your project and specification needs. Take the time to to really figure out what you need and then do it right. Given the current landscape, one of the most important things to consider is whether you need an ingredient that is raw or ready to eat. A raw ingredient is generally less costly than RTE, which is ready to eat, but will need to be further processed to guarantee that it’s safe from a microbiological standpoint.
Garrett McBride [00:19:47]:
For example, if the ingredient you purchase is going into a baked product, a baked finished good, the chances are you’ll be fine purchasing a LOFT specification because the ingredients are undergoing a heat treatment step, which is killing the pathogens that may be present. If the ingredients going directly into a retail package without further lethal processing to kill pathogens, you should seriously consider purchasing a ready to eat specification, that being one that an ingredient has undergone a kill step specifically addressing the minimum 5 log kill for salmonella in particular. Ingredients with the ready to eat designation have undergone that validated lethality step, ensuring that the pathogens are not present. We scrutinize our ready to eat suppliers and processes with extreme diligence to manage that potential risk for Smirk’s and for our customers. This is another huge differentiator between Smirk’s and then a lot of our competitors.
Elisa Louis [00:20:47]:
Right. I mean, I think it makes a lot of sense particularly on higher risk items, so I couldn’t agree more. Thanks a lot for for sharing that advice. Super helpful, I I think, to some folks out there. And in terms of when a customer is asking Smirk’s for a product we don’t actually offer, what do we do in that situation?
Garrett McBride [00:21:07]:
Yeah. We’re always willing to have a conversation with you or a potential customer around innovation and new product opportunities. If it makes sense for everybody involved, we’ll we’ll do everything we can to find a new supplier and solutions and invest them thoroughly. But going back to transparency, if the item you desire is not one that we’re we’re strong on, we’re also more than happy to introduce you to others in the industry that could better service your needs. You know, we know what we’re good at, and we like to leverage that. We know what other people are good at. We want to set you up for success as the customer. We are in this for the long term truly mutually beneficial partnerships and and really not interested in the short sight of transactional plays.
Garrett McBride [00:21:47]:
So again, we’ll be transparent with you about every facet of your ingredient exploration.
Elisa Louis [00:21:54]:
Right on. Well, thank you so much both of you for being on today, but particularly, I gotta say special thanks to Tara because, yeah, we had to twist your arm a little bit to be on here. But you know what? It was so worth it. Right? Am I right?
Tara Hettinger [00:22:10]:
Absolutely. Right. Lisa. You wore me down and I gave in.
Elisa Louis [00:22:18]:
I think it’s it’s fun to know, the person behind the QA team, and and I think it brings it to life, but it also shows your passion for what you do. So thanks for all that you do, you and your team. It’s clear to me that behind every quality product, there’s a dedicated team working to make sure that everything is top notch. So, again, thanks to you both for for joining me today.
Tara Hettinger [00:22:45]:
Yeah. Thank you. I mean, I hope this gives our listeners some insight into the great lengths that our department does go through in creating these phenomenal partnerships on both our supplier and our customer side. It goes both directions for us for sure.
Garrett McBride [00:22:59]:
Alright. Thanks, Tara and Alicia. We’ll see you next time.
Elisa Louis [00:23:03]:
Alright. Well, hey. That wraps up this segment of get the scoop with Smirk’s. We hope you’ll subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast so you can get the latest episode when it becomes available. And if you value this content, please share our podcast with a friend. Keep on listening. In order to catch our segment 2, where Tara is gonna introduce her QA team and in the last segment where we’re gonna share the latest market report for November.
Tara Hettinger [00:23:33]:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to segment 2 of get the scoop with Smirk’s episode number 15. We’re going to do something a little different in this segment. We’d like to focus more on the people that keep things running here at SMRX. Since this episode is all about quality assurance at SMRX, we’re excited to welcome the members of our QA team. Here at Smirk’s, the QA team’s goal is to provide partnerships with not only our customers, but our suppliers as well. In the last segment, you met me. I’m Tara Hettinger.
Tara Hettinger [00:24:03]:
I lead the QA team here at Smirk’s. But as mentioned, there’s a lot of QA work to do, and I couldn’t possibly do it without my team. So with me today, I’m excited to introduce my team members, Danielle Duff and Kelsey Malone. Danielle and Kelsey, welcome to the podcast.
Danielle Duff [00:24:21]:
Thanks, Tara. Excited to be here.
Tara Hettinger [00:24:23]:
Thanks, Tara. I appreciate you having me on. Typically, customers and suppliers rarely get to know the QA team member behind the phone or the email, so this is a unique opportunity to get to know both of you. Danielle, let’s start with you. Can you please tell us a little about yourself and what you like to do outside of work?
Danielle Duff [00:24:43]:
Hi. I’m Danielle Duff. I have a food science degree from CSU with a concentration in food safety and nutrition, and I am a huge nerd.
Tara Hettinger [00:24:52]:
We all love that. What? We all know that.
Danielle Duff [00:24:57]:
I love food science, specifically on the fermentation and preservation side. My family has been growing and canning our own food all my life, and I did my senior capstone project on the effects of lactobacillus starter culture adjuncts on the pH of feta cheese making. Again, nerd. But I also love crafting, cooking, canning, playing D and D and board games with my friends, and spending time with my husband and our 3 pets, Garth, Tonks, and Dexterity.
Tara Hettinger [00:25:27]:
Hey. Thanks for sharing. What is it that piqued your interest to wanna join SMIRCs, and how does your educational and professional background tie into our QA roles?
Danielle Duff [00:25:37]:
I started college as a microbiology major. Learning about microbials and genetic modification was fascinating to me. However, 2 years into microbiology, I found out I’m allergic to agar agar, the substance that is used to grow bacteria. So I had to change majors, and I found the food science major that still allowed me to use my knowledge that I had just removing the parts of the lab work. After college, because of my cheese project, I worked at a company called Laprino that makes mozzarella cheese. I was there for a few months but was not happy with how I was able to use my food knowledge and that my job was over 50 miles away from where I lived and the commute wasn’t working. So I looked on a job search site under food safety, and Smirk’s quality associate popped up. I applied right away because the job description made me feel like I could use my food science knowledge, and it was much closer to home.
Danielle Duff [00:26:28]:
When I interviewed, I felt like the people here really wanted to learn about what I said about food safety, microbes, and pathogens. I have been at Smurcs here for about a year and a half, and I’m so happy I found Smurcs, where I can be my nerdy self and use my food science degree every single day.
Tara Hettinger [00:26:45]:
What is it about the QA work that you find most rewarding?
Danielle Duff [00:26:49]:
I feel like everyone has the right to save food, and we, as an importer and distributor, have a direct hand in making sure the food products that we are distributing are safe for everyone to consume.
Tara Hettinger [00:27:00]:
Danielle, we talked above about your interest, but you didn’t quite tell us how insanely crazy you are about your crafting and all the projects that you do. Tell us how many items you have made for the 3 craft shows that you did or are doing this year, And also tell our listeners how it scares both of us at times, how we are both on the same wavelength. Give our listeners an example.
Danielle Duff [00:27:24]:
So I do have my largest craft fair of the season this weekend, and I have been doing this craft fair with my mom ever since I was born, but I’ve recently taken over for my mom and done a lot more crafts. This year, I’ve canned over 200 jars of homegrown raspberry jam and a 100 bottles of raspberry simple syrup. I’ve recently gotten into wood burning, and I’ve burned around a 100 wood projects. We sew coasters and bowl koozies, plus I make tea towels that say smarkey singings. I nearly sold out of those at the beginning of November, so I hope to have about 50 of them done for this weekend. I know it does seem insanely crazy, but crafting is my therapy. It’s where my imagination runs wild, and I get to create something that makes others happy or a delicious treat to brighten someone’s day. But I also never know when to stop crafting, and I will probably be trying to get one more project done up until the crafty
Tara Hettinger [00:28:23]:
hours. Have you slept this week, Danielle?
Danielle Duff [00:28:28]:
Not enough.
Tara Hettinger [00:28:29]:
Carry on. And
Danielle Duff [00:28:33]:
as for you and I being on the same wavelength, the amount of times we send the same email at the same time or respond to a coworker asking a question word for word the same time is amazing. Recently, we had a really busy week here, and I thought I would stop for coffee or, in my case, tea. I should not drink coffee for us both before work, only to find out you thought the exact same thing, so we both had 2 drinks to drink that day. Now we message each other beforehand just to spread the coffee out of it.
Tara Hettinger [00:29:05]:
We sure do. Thanks, Danielle. Appreciate your background. Kelsey, can you tell us a little bit about your professional background and why you originally joined Smirk’s?
Kelsey Malone [00:29:18]:
Oh, where do I begin? I’ve been in health care for about basically 16 years. The past three and a half years, I’ve worked at UCHealth Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, which is the number one ranked hospital in Colorado and the 8th ranked in the nation. I am a sterile certified sterile processing tech, which basically means we process any instruments to use during surgery. And I’m still PR in, and I do a couple overnight shifts here and there throughout the month. When I decided to look elsewhere for work outside the health care field simply because who wants to drive 76 miles each direction each day? So one day, my mom emailed me that Smurfs was hiring an administration assistant, so I went ahead and applied. I knew when applying, it was going to be one of the best decisions. I know Nick, Donnie, Mike, and April from when my mom worked at Ruger Green for years. So I knew that I would love the family atmosphere that Smurk provides.
Kelsey Malone [00:30:08]:
A year and a half later, I can say, honestly, the best choice for me career wise.
Tara Hettinger [00:30:14]:
Kelsey, some people shy away from the QA. Why did you decide to join Smirk’s QA department, and and what do you find interesting and challenging about the job?
Kelsey Malone [00:30:23]:
Basically, Tara brined me to take this job on. Just kidding. When I was hired at Smirk’s originally, I was an administration assistant in which I did inbounding and releasing to and from our warehouses of products. On a slower days, Tara would give me projects to work and help out the QA department. Now for someone who only knows health care terminology, looking at QA documents was a complete foreign language to me. So Google became my best friend along with, looking up terms. So what do they mean? Why are they important to food safety? And the list could go on and on. But, eventually, 6 to 7 months later into my position, a QA position opened up, and Tara pulled me into her office and basically asked me, hey.
Kelsey Malone [00:31:03]:
You gonna apply for this position? And I said, I planned on it. And since April, I’ve been in the QA department. Joining the QA team, you need to be paying attention to details, staying organized, and not be afraid to ask questions. And with those skills, I felt that I could tackle the position. QA is a tedious job. You must pay attention to every detail on any documentation that you receive. It amazes me the number and variety of products that we disperse to our customers and how each product has its own profile, basically. It’s pretty cool when walking into a grocery store and seeing the product that we sent our customers on the shelves.
Kelsey Malone [00:31:37]:
I would say the most challenging part about this position is not compromising quality. There are so many different time lines for our customers and traders that product needs to be received or new product needs to be vetted. Our process in QA is very stringent and needs everything to be black and white with no potential at carrier area. So to make sure that we follow everything down to the last t and make sure all those questions are answered before we go and then stamp our approval.
Tara Hettinger [00:32:04]:
So outside of work, how do you like to spend your time, Kels?
Kelsey Malone [00:32:08]:
So, basically, outside of work, I’m currently going to school to get my bachelor’s of science in human resources with a concentration of business analytics. So most of my spare time is actually spent doing homework, but once in a while when I get it done, I enjoy watching my nieces play sports, road trips, been watching shows or movies, gardening, and hanging out with my family, and going on truck hauls with my boyfriend and our German short haired grooster.
Tara Hettinger [00:32:31]:
How many concerts have you been to this year, Kells?
Kelsey Malone [00:32:34]:
Too many to count, and all of them forget.
Tara Hettinger [00:32:36]:
Fantastic. Which one was the best one you went to?
Kelsey Malone [00:32:40]:
I would say jelly roll and Cheyenne Frontier Days. It was pretty good.
Tara Hettinger [00:32:43]:
Heck, yeah. I know that you have nieces, but I know your oldest niece, you were more than just an aunt too. Can you tell us a little about her and her accomplishments? I sure can.
Kelsey Malone [00:32:54]:
My niece, Payton, is more of a daughter to me than a niece, and I’m not her aunt Kelsey. I’m her mama, Kate. In 2019, when I moved back to Colorado from Nebraska, Payton more or less moved in with me, and she was 14 at the time. She started high school in Wiggins that following fall. And then in high school, she excelled in academic sports volleyball track and with a couple years of wrestling as well. She was an active member of 4 h and played club volleyball for 4 years. So needless to say that we were a lot of long days and a lot of road trips with our scores. She’s definitely more well traveled than me than I’m at 32.
Kelsey Malone [00:33:28]:
She also has 2 state volleyball champion rings. Anything that kid sets her mind to, she went above and beyond expectations. She graduated in May of 2024 at Tallbrook Class, and she packed her car up and we moved her to West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas, where she’s getting her associates in business ag and wants to become a realtor as well. She has great accomplishments ahead, and I can’t wait to see where she makes it
Garrett McBride [00:33:50]:
in her life.
Tara Hettinger [00:33:51]:
Girls, that was a lot of fun to get to know you and and let our listeners get to know you as well. Thank you for partaking in and agreeing to do this with me. We wanna thank our listeners for joining us today on episode 15 of get the scoop with smirks. But stay tuned as next up, Garrett will be sharing the latest market report for November 2024. If you ever have any questions for Smirk’s about our products or specific QA questions, please don’t hesitate to contact what’s new at smirks.com or visit our website for more information as well and how to contact us. Thanks, everyone.
Garrett McBride [00:34:33]:
Hey. Welcome back. It’s time for the market report accompanying episode 15 of the Get the Scoop of Smirks podcast. I’m Garrett filling in for Donnie again. Lucky you. Let’s jump right into it here. Let’s talk about pumpkin seeds. Conventional pumpkin kernels from China are trading at near historic low levels as a result of high yields from additional acreage planted during the last crop cycle.
Garrett McBride [00:34:56]:
The price and availability gap between conventional and organic pumpkin kernels is larger than normal this year because of widespread positive herbicide testing that’s forced the conversion of a lot of organic inventory to conventional. It caused a lot of problems. There is some speculation that heavy rain and flooding in some of the primary growing regions in China caused runoff of substances banned in organic production to contaminate the organic fields nearby. We recommend that you cover your organic pumpkin needs for 2025 now to secure volume and that you cover your conventional demand now as the market is not likely to soften further without farmers going off to markets. Sunflower. Widespread drought throughout the Eastern European growing regions have caused serious issues with sunflower. Market conditions are not expected to improve until next crop cycle. EU crop reports released earlier this month indicate up to a 25% reduction from June estimates.
Garrett McBride [00:35:52]:
That’s down to 8,140,000 metric tons from 10,800,000 metric tons, significant decrease. Global demand continues to increase, placing additional pressure on an already strained market. We recommend that you secure adequate coverage for your 2025 demand as soon as possible as availability will almost certainly become an issue moving through next year. On to chia. Overall, the chia crop in Paraguay, which is the primary growing region globally, was large estimated to be near 60,000 metric tons or roughly 10% more than last crop year. However, there is a significant gap in availability between organic and conventional product as many organic loads are failing herbicide tests and are being converted to conventional. There will be adequate volumes of conventional chia on the market through 2025 where organic will be increasingly difficult to source as most of the large producers are already off the market and just focusing now on fulfilling existing contracts. We recommend securing as much of your 2025 organic needs quickly as availability is likely to be an issue in the coming year.
Garrett McBride [00:37:00]:
Coconut, coconut, coconut. Coconut markets have reached a 2 year high as El Nino weather patterns have created raw material shortage in many of the growing regions globally. Some have reported kernel size and weights averaging 50% of normal as a result of the dry conditions over the better part of last year. Additionally, China has been purchasing huge quantities of uncracked nuts and further driving that market upward. To add insult to injury, on the opposite side of the weather spectrum, the Philippines have experienced 4 typhoons in the past 3 weeks resulting in severe flooding and loss of life. Tough to catch a break this year. Very unfortunate. There seems to be a trend of producers shipping late and short because of that lack of raw materials to process.
Garrett McBride [00:37:45]:
Be prepared to pay more and wait longer for desiccated coconut for the next 4 to 6 months as conditions are expected to improve and the manufacturers dig out of this hole. Talking about some tree nuts, walnuts. The USA crop is significantly smaller than the estimates have been. Processors are not offering too much right now until they get more in shell product in their possession. The organic crop is sold very quickly and it has been almost impossible to get new crop offers. Prices are going to continue to increase as the supply tightens and the situation progresses. Organics are a big concern Talking about cashews, everyone is anxiously waiting for any signs of information on the new crop to give us a direction as to where the market may go. Some processors in Vietnam are completely out of raw cashew nuts to process, so they’ve shut down for the season.
Garrett McBride [00:38:38]:
Tim Young (3five zero six): Prices have not shown much movement down and broken grades remain in tight supply. Some people in Vietnam have shared the significant rain may cause a late crop as well as adding to the squeeze on the supply waiting for the new crop. We need more time to get a clearer picture of how the market is progressing on the new crop, so stay tuned for the coming months for more information about cashews. Jack Wolf (3five zero six): Macadamia nuts. Some really positive news out of Kenya is that the government is stepping in to stabilize the chaos caused by allowing exports of in shell macadamia nuts from the last year. This really set the whole market into chaos and led to prices going up significantly all season. The hope is that the processors of kernels in Kenya will be able to help stabilize the supply and will again be able to be reliable for supplying shelled macadamia for the new crop which will begin in February. If this news stays positive, we could begin to see some stability in the market again.
Garrett McBride [00:39:36]:
But it’s a little early to tell. South Africa and Australia have been booking new crops, new crop contracts for shipment in May forward but at very high prices. China continues to increase their appetite for macadamia nuts, and we have heard that they continue to book new crop at these high prices. It’s going to be really interesting to watch and see how this all plays out. So stay tuned month to month as this information evolves. Please keep in mind that commodity markets are moving targets. New information pops up daily, and all of this information is subject to change based on weather, politics and a multitude of other external factors way out of anybody’s control. Give us a call.
Garrett McBride [00:40:14]:
Give us an email. What’s new at smirks.com for the most up to date crop and market information or if you just wanna chat.
Garrett McBride [00:40:21]:
Thanks for tuning in.
Garrett McBride [00:40:22]:
Talk to you next month.
Garrett McBride [00:40:24]:
So that’s it for this episode of Get the Scoop with Smurfs podcast, where we bring you the latest market reports, insights into bulk ingredients and their origins, as well as in-depth product information. So if you have any questions, feedback, or just want a sample to taste for yourself, visit the smirks.com website or email us at what’s new at smyrks.com. Never miss a future episode. Be sure to hit the subscribe button wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thanks so much for tuning in.