AUSTIN, MINN. — Hormel Foods Corp. launched The Originate Initiative, a companywide effort to showcase the company’s innovative products and processes and the behind them.

The launch date, April 21, coincided with the United Nations World Creativity and Innovation Day.

The Originate Initiative will highlight information from Hormel’s new center of excellence, Brand Fuel, as well as the company’s overall approach to innovation.

“The Originate Initiative is about all of us thinking differently about the work we do,” said Scott Aakre, senior vice president, Brand Fuel. “The goal is to make sure that we’re talking about innovation across the enterprise and that we’re sharing the story of our success internally as well as to some of our external partners. It’s not only about innovation and new products. It’s about innovation in process, innovation in the way we think.”

In 2022, Hormel introduced around 600 new retail and foodservice products.

The company noted that its innovations depend on the collaborative effort from change makers. For Hormel, those people are industry experts like R&D scientists, product engineers, operators, consumer insights analysts, a senior cultural anthropologist and digital experience teams.

“We’ve had over 130 years of success at Hormel Foods, and all of that starts with the vision of George Hormel,” Aakre added. “He always said, ‘Originate. Don’t imitate.’ Innovation is part of our DNA, and it will continue to play an important part in our future.”