Our standard is simple: No antibiotics, ever.
Animals deserve to be handled with care and respect.
Are GMO ingredients good or bad? The jury is out, so we took them out.
Since 1987, we've been inspiring people to think about their food - where it comes from, how it's raised, and how it's made.
Applegate overhauled its entire natural cheese line to a Non-GMO Project Verified milk supply from cows raised on pasture.
Applegate receives verification from the Non-GMO Project for its natural and organic 100 percent grass-fed beef hot dogs.
Applegate introduces its first products to carry the Non-GMO Project Verified butterfly seal – Applegate Organics® Chicken Nuggets and Applegate Organics® Gluten-Free Chicken Nuggets. Applegate announces its intent to verify all of its products.
Applegate removes genetically modified ingredients from all of its products – more than 130.
Applegate announces the conversion of all its beef products to 100 percent grass-fed and finished.
Hormel Foods acquires Applegate in a deal that allows Applegate to operate as an independent, stand-alone subsidiary.
Applegate sponsors the production and distribution of "Resistance," a documentary that outlines the perils of antibiotic overuse and proposes solutions for reversing the tide.
Applegate brings the mission to cheese production and introduces rBGH-free cheese.
Applegate gives the humble hot dog – often considered the poster child for mystery meat – a makeover and debuts an organic, 100 percent grass-fed beef hot dog.
Applegate goes a step further on the mission by introducing the first widely-available certified organic deli meat.
Stephen McDonnell becomes aware of the wide-spread use of antibiotics in animal agriculture and the detrimental effects on animal welfare, the environment and human health. As a result, Applegate introduces its first deli meat with no antibiotics ever.
The mission starts with Applegate founder Stephen McDonnell wondering: "what if you weren't afraid to read a hot dog ingredient label?" In 1987, Stephen met Christopher Ely and decides to buy Christopher's family business, Jugtown Smokehouse, a purveyor of fine smoked meats made without synthetic nitrates.
