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The Fresh Foods division produces fresh and frozen ready meals, pies and pastries, and dairy products packed for private label brands and RFG Foods's own brands.
The ready-made meals business unit has facilities at Groot Drakenstein and at Aeroton in Gauteng. A diverse range of chilled and frozen fresh ready-made meals, fresh pasta and sauces are produced here forleading South African retailer, Woolworths - a beneficial partnership that dates back to the 1990s.
Ready Meals employs an experienced team of food technologists and chefs to carry out product development, using carefully selected ingredients, resulting in end product ready-meals of the highest international culinary standards. Ongoing product, packaging and process innovation have given rise to a vast range of meal categories, such as Italian and Indian cuisine, Kids meals, Steam cuisine, Slimmers ranges, etc.
Stringent quality regimes, incorporating organoleptic sampling and a fully equipped SANAS accredited microbiological laboratory, ensure that the highest quality and hygiene standards are met and maintained. The ready-made meals plants have ISO 9001:2008 and are HACCP or FSSC 22000 certified.
RFG Foods has a state-of-the-art pie production facility in Aeroton, Gauteng. This operation produces fresh and frozen baked and unbaked pies, pasties, sausage rolls and pie-slices.
Significant investment in technology in the Gauteng factory has enabled RFG Foods to produce, on an ongoing basis, high volumes of high-quality pies. The factory uses the latest technology imported from Europe, which is continuously upgraded.
In addition to producing pies and pastries under private label for Woolworths and the Corner Bakery franchise chain, the operation also produces for its own two own brands, namely Magpie and Ma Baker.
Based in the Franschhoek Valley, the Dairy produces and bottles fresh Ayrshire milk, cream and cheese under private label exclusively for Woolworths in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape under the Ayrshire label.The dairy’s supply emanates from its own neighbouring Ayrshire stud dairy farm and a number of third party suppliers from the surrounding area.
The Rhodes Ayrshire Stud Farm, located on 104 hectares of pasture land in the fertile Franschhoek valley can trace its origins back to the late 1800s when the first bull was imported from Scotland. The herd was moved to its current location during the 1970s.
Today, the Rhodes Ayrshire Stud Farm boasts a herd of approximately 1000 head of award-winning cattle and is home to modern cow housing and calf-rearing facilities. The milk produced by the stud farm is the cornerstone of Rhodes Dairy’s supply base for its production of milk, cream and cheese.
RFG Baking is a highly automated factory based in Johannesburg. Established in 1995, this first class facility produces dry and frozen bakery products including Tubeset, muffin batters, croissants, cinnamon scrolls, place and bake frozen preformed cookies, frozen pizzas, dry bakery mixes and ready-to-eat muffins.
Through the offering of innovative products, combined with convenience and ease of preparation, this business has become the preferred supplier and leader in muffins to the South African food service market. Rhodes Good Group purchased this facility from General Mills Foodservice in 2015.