Choose Chairmans

Custom, Quality, Chairmans

In 2018, Chairman’s Foods of Nashville merged with BDK Foods of Columbus, Georgia, forming one of the country’s premier producers of high-quality comfort foods for both foodservice and retail deli operators. The pandemic accelerated the shift among retailers, club stores, and chain restaurants towards offering consumers more high-quality, ready-to-eat meals and products, all produced with food safety as a top priority.

Chairmans Foods specializes in crafting a variety of high-quality entrées, main dishes, sides, soups, queso, and more for foodservice operators and retail stores. The company has thrived over the years through open communication, integrity, and a strong commitment to Southern hospitality. Wherever there are consumer needs and chefs seeking solutions, Chairmans is there to deliver.

Explore The Chairmans Difference

With over 40 years of experience, Chairmans offers a full range of top-selling brands and bulk-prepared foods, including mains, sides, and vegetables. What sets us apart is our commitment to custom solutions and quality.

We provide custom solutions by helping our clients develop original recipes, match taste profiles, refine formulations, and duplicate recipes in our state-of-the-art facilities. We operate across more than 300,000 square feet in three facilities, employing over 300 dedicated staff.

Our focus on quality starts with food safety to ensure we deliver consistent, high-quality products on time. With SQF and BRC certifications for over 30 years, we ship anywhere in the U.S. within 1–3 days, reaching more than 25,000 stores nationwide.

Together, our custom solutions and quality control help our customers tackle challenges such as rising food and labor costs, managing daily food preparation, and ensuring consistent quality with clean-label foods and flexible packaging.

Cooking Methods

Chairmans uses industry-leading technologies with four cooking methods to create precise, high-quality products:

Kettle Cooking: Our steam-jacketed cook kettles use controlled steam temperatures to cook products like soups and sauces, ensuring uniform heating and mixing for consistent results.

Sous Vide Cooking: This technique maintains a constant temperature to lock in flavors, herbs, and nutrients. It enhances flavor, improves yields, and ensures consistency by batch cooking.

Cook-in-Bag: Using pressure vessels to cook in bags or pouches, we create consistent, safe, and delicious foods, working closely with customers to meet their needs.

Ready-to-Eat Blending: Ideal for cold deli items like chicken or tuna salad, these ready-to-eat meals are made with fresh ingredients, prepared under strict safety conditions, and packaged for convenience.

Custom Solutions

Chairman’s Foods is dedicated to helping clients enhance their products, ingredients, and menu offerings. Our innovative team of experts has created a wide variety of delicious foods that are sure to impress consumers. We collaborate closely with clients to develop new recipes, match existing taste profiles, and refine formulations. With over 40 years of experience, we consistently deliver safe, high-quality products on time, all within a clean, certified, and collaborative environment.

Food Safety

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are responsible for ensuring food sold in the United States is safe and properly labeled. Chairmans Foods works closely with the USDA, FDA, and other third-party certifiers to achieve all HACCP standards and to implement all new compliance regulations immediately.

At Chairmans’ three facilities, the company has over 30 years of certifications and recognitions for quality and safety to include:

Chairmans Foods Nashville, TN – SQF Certified since 2013
Chairmans Foods Columbus, GA – SQF Certified since 2010
Chairmans Foods Atlanta, GA – BRC Certified since 2016

A key operating principle at Chairmans is safety at all levels – for the employees in the workplace as well as for the food they make.

As overseen by the Environmental Health & Safety Supervisor, Chairmans quality assurance team works diligently to ensure the safety and quality of its food products are at the highest standards. This commitment includes:

Grade A ingredients
All ingredient vendors must be approved through third party auditIngredient vendors are required to follow our strict quality guidelines and controls Foreign Supplier Verification (FSMA)
Utilize off-site lab that is ISO 17025 accredited to ensure highest standards of quality everyday

The entire staff at Chairmans is focused on unwavering food safety processes and dedicated to continuous improvement so all customers can be confident in the company’s product integrity and safety. Chairmans has had this commitment for more than 45 years and continues a strict adherence to food safety every single day.

Quality Assurance

Chairmans’ production staff is dedicated to delivering top-quality products, from sourcing ingredients to final packaging. Our comprehensive quality assurance (QA) program includes rigorous testing and accountability procedures managed by a team of experts.

We conduct regular testing and inspections to ensure the purity and durability of ingredients and packaging. Our QA team closely monitors every step, identifying weaknesses and implementing improvements for safety and quality. Key systems include:

Verification and validation of processes
Facility, personnel, and documentation inspections
Sensory analysis of products
Ingredient analysis
Fill control
First-in/first-out and traceability
Allergen management

These techniques are crucial to the planning, preparation, and production of our products, ensuring they meet the highest standards before delivery.

State-of-the-Art Facilities

Chairmans operates three efficient production facilities with capabilities in sous vide, kettle, cook-in-bag processes, and ready-to-eat blending, all using high-quality ingredients and industry-leading technology.

Our Nashville, TN facility has been manufacturing fresh and frozen foods for over 40 years, meeting and exceeding FDA and USDA standards. It holds a GFSI-Approved SQF Level 3 certification.

The Columbus, GA facility, spanning 70,000 sq. feet, recently underwent major renovations and complies with FDA standards, holding a GFSI-Approved SQF Level 3 certification.

The Atlanta, GA facility, at 125,000 sq. feet, also completed significant renovations and complies with FDA standards.

Environmental, Health, Safety & Sustainability

We value safety and the wellbeing of our employees, customers, and consumers, while being responsible stewards of the environment. We strive for sustainability through the minimization of waste, conservation of resources, recycling and protecting the environment of our surrounding communities.