Quality Foods, More Than Just Chicken
You may know them for various meat products, but Quality would like to remind you that, these days they have much more to offer than just poultry. Quality Foods restaurant and store located in San Ignacio has a selection that ranges from groceries to pastries, drinks to deli meats and so much more. Today, we stopped by their store and restaurant to get a better idea of what it’s all about. Here’s News Five’s Britney Gordon with the story.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Quality Foods supermarket and Quality Express, opened their doors in November 2023 and has since prided itself in being the one-stop shop for all your needs. Located at the corner of Branch Mouth Road and Joseph Andrews Drive in San Ignacio, this store delivers on convenience, cost, and of course, quality.
Andre Salgado
Andre Salgado, Manager, Quality Poultry Products
“It’s a fairly new business that we opened in San Ignacio. So it’s a two part operation. So we have Quality Foods which is a distributor of quality poultry products. So the idea is when people hear the name quality poultry products, they only think chicken. And that has been going on. We’ve been in the industry for over forty-seven years so some people only associate the name Quality Poultry with chicken. So what we’re trying to do in San Ignacio is, we’re trying to move away from that. And so we have named the grocery store quality foods.”
Whether you’re searching for a familiar favorite, or you fancy something foreign, Quality Foods has got it too. With an array of locally sourced vegetables and meats, you can create a meal you’ll be proud to serve at your family’s table.
Andre Salgado
“One thing that a lot of people don’t know about Quality Poultry is that we don’t do a high profit margin on most of our items. So for instance, all our greens, it’s priced really low, and that’s rice, beans, flour, sugar, because again, when you think of a Sunday dinner, you think rice and beans and your chicken, so of course we have the chicken here, so why not make the, some of the items affordable?”
And if you’re feeling peckish while you shop, Quality Foods has a solution. Their in-house deli is stocked with delicious meats and cheeses that a chef will turn into a sub right before your eyes.
Andre Salgado
“First of its kind, of course in any one of the quality poultry stores. We decided to do something a little bit different. We wanted to showcase more Belizean products. And so we have a wide variety of cheeses from different producers in Belize Cave Branch. I don’t know if you know what Cave Branch produces locally made cheese. So we have cheese from Cave Branch. As well, hams we do have locally produced hams and the entire idea with the deli is we wanted it to be that you can come and you can choose what type of ham you want specifically and what quantity out you want.”
The deli also offers a variety of freshly baked goods such as meat pies, patties, and sausage rolls. For those with a sweet tooth, Quality Foods also offers baked goods, delivered fresh every day.
Andre Salgado
“We do have a wide variety of pastries including a different variety of cheesecakes, some lemon pies, bread puddings. And another good thing about quality poultry sounding natural is that same thing. We have suppliers that come in every day that brings brownies, cupcakes, and they’re also seasonal. So when it was Christmas, we had Christmas cakes and we had the black cakes and the regular white cake. So same thing for Valentine’s. We have Valentine’s cake. And of course, we’re budget friendly.”
And the day doesn’t have to end when you’ve completed your grocery shopping. You and your family can head next door to Quality Express. With seating capacity for over two hundred fifty persons, Quality Express is prepared to serve your family, no matter how big or small.
Andre Salgado
“What makes us stand out from any other restaurant here in Belize and San Ignacio and most of the quality poultry chains, we have a drive through. This building as well in San Ignacio, we do have a drive through here. Again, we’re all for convenience. We’re all about family. We’re all about, whatever lifestyle quality lifestyle.”
Quality Express brings out all when it comes to chicken. From wings to burgers, quesadillas, salads and even locally sourced chicken pepperoni pizza, they’ve got it all and with a selection of desserts such as soft serve ice-cream and freshly baked cookies, and a playground located just outside, Quality Express is the perfect place for every child.
Andre Salgado
“So we have serve ice cream machine. So we have different flavors of ice cream and it’s available daily. And it’s not the same flavor that’s available every week. So you come this week, maybe we have cheesecake. Next week we’ll have chocolate. But we always have vanilla. As well with the ice cream. You can make a Sunday. We make Sunday so you can just ask the cashiers and they will let you know what specific Sunday we have available. Sometimes we have Oreo. So it all depends on what your preference is. Another thing about Chicken Express besides making fresh food is that every day we make fresh cookies. So every day you come in and you get freshly baked cookies available at Chicken Express San Ignacio. Actually, next week we’re gonna be introducing a soda fountain machine as well.”
And no matter how many new items are introduced Quality, wouldn’t be quality without their chicken.
Andre Salgado
“What we do in all quality poultry countrywide is that we have something called mix and match. So what that is that if you purchased twenty-five pounds of any chicken products, you get the wholesale price, right? So the wholesale price is a discount off the normal price, right? And it’s a significant discount. So you mix it to what you want and as long as it reaches the twenty-five pound, then the system automatically gives you the wholesale price for those chicken items. And that also goes for our processed products because, again, a lot of people don’t know that at Quality Poultry, we do make sausages. So we have habanero sausage, we have smoked sausage, we have breakfast sausage, we have chicken ham slices, we have turkey ham slices. So, again, we do offer a wide array of products, but it’s just that a lot of people don’t know what we have.”
Britney Gordon for News Five.
