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Working from their small garage in Seattle, and after much trial and error, the Espinosa family believed that following old family recipes directly from their homeland, the Philippines, they created a sausage product to rival all others. In 1988, Espi's Sausage & Tocino Co. was officially started. And with only two years in production, Espi’s was already making headlines in local news papers including the Seattle Times, which it was recognized for its innovative food manufacturing and finance packaging techniques.
Only a few years later Espi's Sausage & Tocino Co. became one of the most successful small food processing operations in Washington State, and the only Filipino sausage maker in the Northwest. In the early stages of the business, demand overwhelmed supply. Thus in order to satisfy the huge demand for their product, the Espinosa family members acquired a facility which not only met but exceeded the requirements of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for food processing ventures. To preserve the high standard of quality that is the hallmark of Espi’s, a USDA representative comes in daily to check on all aspects of food preparation and packaging.
The family formed BELS Foods, Inc. and began producing and distributing Espi’s Sausages and Tocinos in mass quantities to grocery stores in Seattle as well as to many different states and countries in the world including Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, California, Nevada, Texas, and Canada. Espi’s also supplies their products to all key military bases in the area including Sand Point Naval Base, Ft. Lewis, McCord Airbase, and the Naval installation at Bangor.
Espi’s continues to pride itself on creating recipes that are genuinely Filipino, with selecting only the finest dishes culled from centuries of culinary excitement and expertise.
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